Safety · 10. June 2015

Final Documentation & Safety

Final Documentation is one of the phases whereby Document Control and Safety overlap and collide.

Preparing and checking the Final Documentation (including "As-Built" documents) is a challenging and crucial task for Document Controllers.

The end-user of final documentation is Operations & Maintenance

Document Controllers must always bear in mind that the documentation packages that they prepare will be delivered to production/processing plants, factories, constructed sites/buildings, control rooms etc, and that technical professionals will rely on these documents in their day-to-day activities.

The quality, the accuracy and the integrity of the delivered documentation must be flawless in order to avoid accidents.

Final documentation is too often prepared under pressure

The difficulty often lies in the fact that Final Documentation packages must be prepared in a haste, under pressure, often with additional and temporary team members, and that this phase may, in certain cases, involve literally thousands and even tens of thousands of documents.

It is challenging for anyone to deliver a flawless package in such conditions. However, the lifes of many people may depend on the quality of this work.

We must keep safety in mind when working on Final Documentation

Practical examples of issues that Document Controllers must bear in mind when they compile final documentation may include:

What if I overlook the fact that a page is missing in an Oil and Gas equipment isolation procedure? The maintenance/operations person in charge of isolating the equipment from incoming flammable/explosive fluids may miss a few procedural steps and wind up injured or killed;

What if forget to include operating manuals for the maintenance of a building's lift/elevator before final documentation hand-over is signed off? The client may have to pay significant amounts of money, after close-out of the contract, to obtain this documentation at last. Maintenance of the lift/elevator may meanwhile be delayed and cause accidents.

What if I inadvertently insert a superseded version of a technical document in the final documentation package? A whole ulterior plant/factory/site modification project may start on incorrect information and may wind up wasting significant sums of money before anyone realises the mistake. It may also put people's life at risk, for example, if excavation works are launched in an area which is not supposed to include a buried high-pressure gas pipeline.

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