Engineering news
Safety has been compromised in engineering projects including the building of a British-designed petrochemical plant overseas and a major civil engineering project due to lax document control, according to new research.
The Institute of Document Control (IDC) said a survey of 200 of its members revealed that most (62%) had worked on at least one project where there were safety critical failings because of poor control of documents over the course of their careers.
These included several safety critical elements of a land-based petrochemical facility designed in the UK, built overseas, and now in operation, which was built to rejected drawings, and a major civil construction project where two parties had worked to different cement standards, resulting in a large section of an important structure coming loose and falling onto the site.
The IDC said the good news was that most of the single worst examples its members were aware of were resolved by company authorities, but some 22% were never addressed.
IDC members work for many of the UK’s largest engineering-related employers. Members total 600 but it is thought that this figure could rise to 2,000 in time.
John Barton, interim president of the IDC, told PE that interest in the institute’s work was “phenomenal”. He said he was unsurprised by the findings of the research and that he hoped effective document control would rise up the agenda at engineering firms.
He said: “Document control can be seen as glorified admin. Part of our job is to say that actually it is a distinct discipline.
“Lax document control is unfortunately commonplace,” he added. “Even in the most disciplined environments it still happens because deadlines take over, they become the priority so often.
“It’s a question of deadlines and money, but also one of negligence. Document control not being given due consideration can result in compromising safety.
“A tiny detail of a drawing that is from a previous revision being used could result in disaster such as serious injury.”
Companies needed to take document control seriously as a discipline, Barton said. “There is a perception in a lot of places that it’s convenient to consider it as an administration role, which means it can be under-resourced. Quite often it’s considered as something which can be done part-time, and often it’s not carried out early enough in a project.”
The IDC’s work in accreditation and certification of document control professionals would help to boost the discipline’s profile, he said.