Simplifying the documentation of a design or engineering office

In this project, which lasted 4 months, we needed to help our client simplify the documentation for their engineering office.

The office operates in the pharmaceutical world: it designs buildings for the production of biotechnological products.

However, the term building includes the envelope, manufacturing equipment, and utility equipment (water, gas, electricity)

Find the summary of the project on video here:

https://youtu.be/S_qaRu1yZH4

Before simplifying the documentation, let's sort it out...

The design office uses several documentation profiles:

• The documentation of technical standards, such as, for example, air power plants, or autoclaves, or water power plants.
• The documentation of the project process, by phase (feasibility study, preliminary draft summary, detailed preliminary project...)
• General service procedures: time off, reimbursement of expense reports, etc.

In fact, this analysis showed, for example, that standards documentation was used in several documents intended for suppliers at different stages of the project.

For example, the standard specifications of air power plants are found in the specifications, then in the contractual documents.

So, it is necessary to ask yourself the question of the risks of inconsistency from one supplier document to another. And keeping this information up to date.

Project documentation does not quite meet the same rules. However, some documentation elements are found at all phases of the project.

From documentation to content management...

Our preliminary analysis showed that documentation information should be managed at the level of the information block rather than at the level of the document.

In fact, this concept is called content management. Content is like a Lego brick, and a document is an assembly of bricks. The brick can be reused from one document to another. And if the brick changes, it can, if desired, be changed automatically in all the documents that contain it.

It is very interesting! Because if we go back to the specifications of air power plants, they break down into a dozen standards. And if you want to write supplier documents, for example a specification, you can use the 10 standards if you want to, or use only 5 or 7 standards. In fact, everything depends on the configuration of the future installation.

In the same way, at the feasibility stage, we may be writing documents with only 5 of the 10 standards. Then in the next phases, the documents will perhaps contain 9 standards out of 10, and one specific one.

Content management offers great flexibility and allows for great rigor, while ensuring significant productivity in the management of documentation.

What if we merged documentation and micro-learning?

In our project, we also worked on increasing the skills of engineers. Indeed, how can engineers have a better understanding of project standards and procedures? And therefore, for projects to be better controlled in their cost - quality - deadline triangle.

Organizing documentation into content allows multimedia content, especially video, to be dragged.

For example, in the section of content associated with air power plants, we imagined a set of videos presenting:

• the general policy of the design office on air power plants
• The key principles of sizing an air power plant in a pharmaceutical context
• The categories of air power plants
• one or more videos explaining the standards in detail

For the procedures by project phase, again, explanatory videos of the phases, or tutorials explaining each tool to be used at each phase are necessary.

All these videos can be used in micro-learning courses, which depend on the profile of engineers (seniority, and field of technical competence).

The major advantage of this approach is to do 2 in 1. Indeed, there is no longer documentation on one side, and training on the other. All content is made to be understood and digested easily.

The system's pivotal computing tools: CMS-LMS

To support this approach, it is necessary to equip yourself with two key tools:

• A content manager (example: Quark Enterprise Solutions)
• An LMS (learning management system) supporting micro-learning, and ideally, on a mobile terminal).

Our client was not equipped with these tools, which did not allow us to go through with the process.

However, he took options to approach the recommended solution. He evolved a combined SharePoint - Excel solution to manage content. On the learning side, he will continue to use the LMS he already had.

A few figures

We completed this work in 4 months. Twenty interviews with key people were carried out, as well as a few working meetings.

Our work has reduced the number of documentation management procedures in the office from 6 to 1.

And the gains?

In the long run, the expected gains are very significant:

• Reduction in the total cost of ownership of buildings and manufacturing processes: several tens of millions of euros per year
• Reduction of the regulatory risk that different standards may generate from one site to another
• Increase in the productivity of engineers (better training, faster integration of new ones, simplified relationships with subcontractors, application of off-the-shelf standards rather than reinventing the wheel)