The Death of the Filing Cabinet

This paper highlights managing engineering documents electronically—that is, via a computer system on which users share files—enables all engineers to be on the same page, literally. But benefits extend far beyond what is called as version control. Those engineering firms that need to keep documents to comply with regulatory requirements find the software to be vital. Digital management prevents too many cooks (or engineers) from spoiling the design soup by ensuring only one person at a time gets to make changes to a drawing or document. Workflow management means incipient designs can pass between pertinent mechanical engineers, analysts, and manufacturing engineers at the proper time in the design cycle. The experience of the engineers at AWB Engineers, a consulting firm in Salisbury, Md., is pretty typical of the benefits of managing documents electronically. While the engineers there were doing their best to control the overwhelming number of documents, CAD files, change orders, and the like that flowed through the company every day, managers still ran into trouble.