Industries all across the board are going digital, but, unfortunately, in a study done by McKinsey Global Institute, the construction industry is second to the last when it comes to going digital. Up until now, there are still a lot of construction firms that store construction drawings – engineering blueprints included in a job trailer, and every morning, workers have to check in to make sure that everybody had the latest plan.
If there were any changes to these drawings means having to attach revision notes or having to print new plans. The process sounds easy enough, but since drawings for a construction project can range between 100 to 1000, and that’s a lot of drawing to sift thru. And there have been too many instances where contractors have to fix a very costly mistake because somebody was working off a wrong set of plans.
This is just one of the long list of problems facing the construction industry when it comes to data management. One of the surest ways to solve this problem is to streamline the document management process with drawing management software.
.An Engineering Document Management Software (EDMS) is a software platform that handles, creation, sharing, and organization documents with features that cater to engineering blueprints. The data is then stored central repository where it can be accessed by assigned team members depending on the type of permission that they have.
So, what are the benefits of going digital with documents using an Engineering Drawing Management Software? In this article, we will discuss the five benefits of using document management software:
- Reduction of storage space
- Document centralization and easy retrieval
- Increased team collaboration
- Easier Mark-Ups
- Increased Data Security
Benefits of Engineering Drawing Management Software
Reduction of Storage Space
Costs for everything are going up, and this included the cost to store paper documents. An EDMS system can reduce the need to file bulky and thick engineering blueprints, and can free up office space. If there are any engineering blueprints that need to be archived as hard copies, it can be often stored in cost-effective locations like an offsite warehouse or vault.
Document Centralization and Easy Retrieval
In a study done by PWC, they cited that looking for and retrieving documents can take a toll on the company’s productivity level. Consider these statistics:
- Professionals spend 15 % of their time reading information and spend 50% of their time looking for it.
- 5% of all documents get lost, and 3% gets misfiled
- It cost a company $20 in labor fees to file a document, $120 to find a misfiled document and $220 to replace a lost document
A good DMS system stores your files in a secure central storage system that allows easy retrieval by word, or phrase or a full-text search. A DMS system can also index categories to a document or folder, minimizing or eliminating cases of lost or misplaced documents.
Increased Team Collaboration
In construction, you have to have teamwork. The right EDMS software will allow you to view and edit a document with people using the same drawing set, and in this way, give a real-time update to everyone. A DMS system tracks changes done to any document – who did it, and when, increasing visibility and cutting down he said, she said drama scenario when the time comes when accountability comes into play.
Markups Are Easier to Make
Markups are a mainstay of the construction industry because plans need to be updated and fine-tuned every day. A markup which is done manually is managed by a person who takes care of the notes that are created in the field and makes sure that they get added to the right drawings.
After this, this information has to go to the people who need to review it, and then back out to the people working in the field. While this is done, new markups are being done in the field and have not been processed yet. This kind of operation is a time consuming one and is prone to a lot of human errors.
The right cloud-based document management software allows a user to create markups directly inside the plans, updates the plans, and shares it to everyone involved in the same drawing set in real time without time-consuming uploading and downloading. This way, you can be sure that everyone is updated to any changes to the drawings anytime, anywhere.
Increased Data Security
Data is like gold nowadays, and data security is a big concern for all companies. Documents, engineering plans included are things that need to be secured all the time especially if they contain sensitive information. A lot, if not all document management software offers a role-based access control which allows only specific users to access specific documents.
The file manager can allow or restrict access to certain documents when it comes to viewing, sharing, and editing. DMS software also increases visibility by displaying who viewed documents, at what time, as well as what modification has been done in the system.
And, if you use a cloud-based system like Procore as your DMS, then you can be sure that your data is encrypted, and backed up regularly. So you can sleep safely that your data is well protected and safe from unscrupulous eyes.
