Going Paperless

[EngineerDave]

I have always had trouble with paper. I lose papers, I improperly file them, etc.

I am thinking of going "paperless". While I won't completely eliminate paper, I want to limit it's use.

The core of the plan is to frequently purge paper, scan useful documents, limit how much I print out, etc.

I want an electronic copy of everything, but right now I have a rather slow scanner.

The key issues with a paperless regime now are

1) Scanner. I need a multipage one for color documents. I'm guessing this won't be cheap. One in which you can feed the papers in. Our copy machine does this, but not in color

2) I will have to have a good backup and archive system if my computer crashes. This is already important

3) I will have to remind people to email me documents rather than give me paper copies.

4) I will still work with paper, but once it's no longer of use, it's off to the recycling bin.

Any suggestions?
Am I crazy?

This clean desk feeling is really nice though. I even took down all the papers I had hanging up. People thought i quit the first day I did it.

 

[PSE]

At first glance you seem to have covered your apparent needs and the only way to find out how well it works is to try putting it into practice. I still always carry around a notebook for each project I have.

One technique that I have that works pretty well is that I create a document index file in Excel for any particular project that I am working on. I have the file name, format, brief description and then I put in a hyperlink to the file itself. It has worked well as it is searchable and sortable.

Regards,

 

[EngineerDave]

Nice idea, I did something similar with a very hyperlinked word document.

I've also thought of getting a tablet PC, but the cost and theft potential (we are in a high traffic area and I had a personal laptop stolen from me once here) make it less likely. If I did get one, it'd have to be on me at virtually all times.

EngineerDave

 

[magoo2]

Another suggestion is to "share the wealth". Send copies of some of your more important documents to colleagues. This makes them feel better in that you're sharing something that probably would be useful to them. They, in turn, will probably reciprocate by sending you other documents to increase your electronic library.

Also, this gives you a distributed back-up source which can come in handy on occasions. For example, I was doing a class recently and thought of a particular reference that would be useful to share with the group. I emailed a colleague during a break and, sure enough, had the document emailed to be in a couple of hours.

 

[Mr168]

I suppose much of the success will be dependent on what sort of documents you typically see.

I keep just about everything I have procedure-wise in electronic form exclusively as both PDF and Word docs, and set up our procedure manuals on the company intranet to reflect that.

Things were not quite so simple when it came to reviewing engineering documents and drawings, larger spreadsheets, etc.

Going paperless is tough, but you can get pretty close, pretty reasonably. Most of the paper on my desk are Post-Its and small notepads that I use to keep track of conversations, etc, but at times, reviewing multiple documents at once becomes just impossible to do on a single monitor.

 

[casseopeia]

We use a Xerox Workcenter 7655 here and it does everything. Scans, copies, sends faxes and email. I'm sure it does stuff I'll never thing=k to use. I just emailed the closest thing with lots of color to myself. The workcenter scans and converts to a pdf automatically. I use another program to convert to jpg for images because I get a better quality and can then use photoshop to make alterations, nat that I'd need to do that with this.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[KENAT]

The biggest thing is still tracking what you have and being able to locate it when you need it.

I'm not sure this is fully addressed above but has been in other threads that I vaguely recall.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[Unotec]

We were forced to go paperless (mix between cost savings, environmentally friendlier, storage capacity and a few other factors)

Now I print, revise and recycle the waste paper. if I ever have to do another revision on the same document I re-print it, re-revise it and recycle it.

Other than the fact that now everyone can have electronic access to the documents, I cannot see any other advantages. I refuse to revise anything in the screen. I had, have and plan on having, good eyes for as far as I can muster.

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying ” Damn that was fun!” - Unknown>>

 

[analogkid2digitalman]

A big help in locating what is where on your hard drive to allow fast access in finding it is the coupious use of folders and sub folders with descriptive names.

I typically use a main folder for a project and then sub categorize with sub-folders, for example:

G:\Tower4ExtruderMonitoringProject
\Scheduling
\MeetingNotes
\Software
\Schematics
\Emails
\Data
\Manuals
\ComponentDocumentation
\Pictures

Use of descriptive file names also helps.

I also categorize fairly heavily in my email folders also.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's the questions that drive us"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[MikeHalloran]

We have a Konica Minolta color copier/scanner/printer, and a sort of 'system' evolved around it.

Scanned documents are emailed (by the scanner) to whoever is preprogrammed in as a destination. The document comes in as a pdf file with an arbitrary name. They are typically saved within an Outlook message, in a structured folder tree by project, etc.

I hate it. I can never remember where I put anything, much less conjecture where someone else might have put it. So I search for stuff, constantly. Hint: MS Search is crap. Get 'Agent Ransack' or something similar.

It doesn't help that some rocket scientist decided to change the standard project structure, and merge all the folders with proposed but not accepted options and other dead ends among the 'live' folders with the good stuff in them, but that's another whole issue.

It's not truly a paperless system. There is one paper project binder, with standardized dividers. The folder system is a relatively faithful analogue of its structure.

The paper version is a _lot_ easier to page through, and a _lot_ easier for understanding the relationship of various documents, and a _lot_ easier to read, even with my setup (two screens, one landscape, one portrait).

So I still end up printing most stuff, to mark up, to have a fast-access local copy, or just to read. After which, I toss the paper, so I won't accidentally use an outdated version of something.

IMHO and experience at several places, 'going paperless' actually increases your paper consumption... a lot. You store less, but you use much more.







Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[BigInch]

Anybody tried using a document manager?

http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/document_manager_software/

http://www.oasys-software.com/products/document_management/columbus/

**********************
"Pumping systems account for nearly 20% of the world’s energy used by electric motors and 25% to 50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities." - DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99.99% for pipeline companies)

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

 

[ewh]

The problem I have found with most document managers is that they are incapable of maintaining relational links between files.

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. - [small]Hunter S. Thompson[/small]

 

[cry22]

we tend to underestimate the work of others.
File mangement, saving, storing, retracting information is a TRADE that is taught in school for human resources and librarians. We think of it as nothing at all.

Yes, paperless is the way to go, it is the way not to lose files and recover easily, especially ARCHIVE easily, but get some training on IT file management.

 

[ctopher]

We eventually will all be paperless. But, as long as there are generations that grew up without computers still living, we will be still using paper.
Government contracts also still require a paper trail.
Also, there are less fortunate workers that don't know how to use computers or don't own one that can't go paperless yet. Most of their jobs are being outsourced anyway.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[msquared48]

Engineering will never, but never, go paperless. We still have Environmental Engineers...and bathrooms.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[ctopher]

I wouldn't say 'never'. There are engineering programs now that are paperless.
If the environmentalists' have their way, toilet paper will be gone...just like the Sears catalog.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[maddocks]

I've tried going paperless on some technical resource papers but my scanner doesn't do OCR very well and I can't search the pdf's properly. Makes for a frustrating search - I was almost better off with the pile of papers behind my desk.

 

[jmw]

The irony of the modern world is that computers didn't reduce that many jobs, or result in a paperless office.
Instead of lots of typists we now have IT gurus.
Take a look at the pallet loads of printing paper arriving each day.

What computers did do is let everyone become much more productive.

By the way, once you have everything scanned and saved, make sure you have secure backups.



JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[ctopher]

Computers may us just a little bit less dependent on paper (trees) and more dependent on oil.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[bvanhiel]

I have a Fujutsu Scansnap 510 on my desk. It's not terribly cheap. I think they go for ~400USD. However it's probably the cheapest scanner that does the two things I care about: 1)scan directly to pdf with a minimum of fuss, and 2) handle a stack of 2-sided documents.

I think it being on the desk is key to me. It means things don't accumulate.

It comes with Acrobat standard (not to be confused with Acrobat reader). It also comes with some pretty good OCR software that automatically converts pdf's to searchable text. Makes life a lot easier when you can search the text of the document!

It's about as good of an individual solution as you can get. Not as good for multiple users, as it's not networked. To get that you'd be spending in the $1000's.