Currently, document management is limited to a scoring system which fails to take in to account the weighting which each risk variable should be afforded; meaning that for example a simple document rebrand would have the same scoring impact as a change in external legislation. Furthermore, it is felt that currently not all relevant risk variables have been identified; for example CAPEX, REPEX, OPEX, environmental, procurement, supply chain, HS&E and document complexity factors have not been considered.
This project will aim to essentially build upon the existing scoring system by identifying all of what Northern Gas Networks (along with Quality Assurance Engineers from QEM Solutions) believe to be the key risk variables which should be taken in to account when prioritising document risk. A ‘risk variable’ is a factor that it is believed impacts upon a documents performance, for example: If any external legislation applicable to the gas industry is reviewed, the changes made could have a negative impact upon our internal standards. As Northern Gas Networks have a legal obligation to comply with external legislation, it can be identified as a ‘risk variable’ and should be taken in to account when prioritising the risk which a document may pose to business activity.
The end result of applying all identifiable risk variables to each of Northern Gas Networks engineering standards will be a table displaying the ‘highest risk’ document at the top, with the rest following in descending order.
Validation of this database will be achieved through the gathering and analysis of live industry data which will be gathered from document management records and feedback from all levels of the business via a questionnaire.
Benefits
Success will be measured on whether or not the end result can accurately prioritise each engineering standard according to the risk it poses to Northern Gas Networks’ business activities after being held up against each ‘risk variable’. Ultimately, the success of this project will be realised when both commercial and carbon benefits begin to appear as a result of being able to proactively implement effective document control and management.
It is also hoped that in the longer term, collaborative work with the other GDNs and IGEM in the form of NGNs 2014 NIC bid will lead to this database being applicable across the industry.
The success of this project will form the basis of our NIC bid in which we intend on working with all GDNs and IGEM to update the majority of the UK gas industry engineering standards. The aim of this project and of the NIC bid is to ensure that the industry as a whole are working to the same version of each standard and that we become more accessible for the supply chain.