OT: Drawing distribution tracking

Steve I have been dealing with this same event for 20+ years.

The best that you can do is place an fabrication order, in-house or out of house, send a current copy of the drawing every time.

If you need to send an updated version of a drawing you should have some kind of MRP input to see what is in the fabrication loop for a specific item, then send new copies of drawings to the shop.

I have also sent a table listing of drawings to fabrication shop with the current revision listed on a weekly basis. it was up to the shop to validate these changes and request new documents. This worked but not always. Typically, it was the purchasing agent, for external fabrication, or a materials person, for internal fabrication, that would recognize the change and request updated documents.

The only other option that you have is setup a document control group. This will be one of their activities is to track drawings at a control documentation location(s). As soon as a change was completed, any copy has to be replaced with a new one. And they need to be able to put their hands on to predecessor or any part of it. Sometimes a drawing copy is replaced due to partial or majority destruction, but this is handled through another venue.

Most tasks are simple, but very formidable to complete. iQ

I recall reading about Acrobat (v7 onwards) having some form of enterprise/server setup, whereby when suppliers try to open a protected pdf, they have to have an internet connection which links them back to the Acrobat server. It gives them a license (or not, as the case may be) which can be time limited. This would seem to allow you to control what data of yours is available to whom and for how long.

It sounded powerful stuff, but I've never had the cause (or budget) to investigate it.

John H