Managing the Flow of Documents
Well Planned Workflow Enhances Productivity and Working Conditions
A look at the kinds of documents generated in a business would help us understand the context of workflow. A typical business generates:
- Day-to-day Communications: Correspondence, Internal Memos, etc.
- Management Control: Business Plans, Budgets, MIS Reports, Project Reports, etc.
- Legal Documents: Contracts, Minutes of Negotiations, Incorporation Certificate, etc.
- Specifications & Charts: Blueprints, Organization Charts, Product Specifications, Process Flow Charts, Reference Materials, etc.
- Publicity Materials: Brochures, Photographs, Press Releases, etc.
- Transactional Documents: Invoices, Goods Received Notes, Bin Cards, Production Schedules, Attendance Cards, Pay Sheets, etc.
If you examine the above list carefully, you would notice that documents have the characteristic of moving from person to person. For example, a letter might be dictated by a manager, typed by a secretary, signed by the manager, sent to mail section by the secretary, dispatched by the mail clerk and received by the addressee. If these movements are left unplanned, serious business damage could occur.
Planning the Document Flow
Document flow is controlled through the implementation of well-planned policies and procedures. These procedures are developed with several objectives, including the following major ones:
- Enhance Working Conditions: Staff would not face serious problems in attending to their work as work comes to them in an expected manner. This would naturally lead to improvement in morale and productivity.
- Minimize Costs: If redundant movement can be eliminated, you save on staff time and handling costs. Other ways of saving costs might be revealed by a careful study.
- Ensure Confidentiality: Only authorized persons should see business-sensitive documents. There are also privacy laws that regulate confidential maintenance of certain kinds of data, such as employee health records. Plan the flow of these documents in a way that restricts and tracks their movement.
- Fixing Accountability: If a document is misplaced or lost, it should be possible to fix responsibility on specific persons. The existence of such accountability itself could ensure more careful handling of all documents.
If you look at the illustrative list of documents given in the first para above, you would notice the critical business-significance of many of these.
- If Business Plans and MIS reports fall into the hands of a competitor, your competitive advantage could be jeopardized
- If transaction documents are lost or misplaced, it could lead to financial losses and disputes
- If the document flow is poorly designed, the recipient of an important internal memo might claim he or she never received it
What Is Involved in Document Flow?
Capture, Manage and Distribute: Data has to be captured at the most convenient point. The captured data have to be processed to yield desired information. The information so produced has to be distributed to concerned persons.
Creation, Updating, Review and Approval: Data capture results in creating a record or document. These would often need to be updated to reflect changes or latest data, and would invariably need to be reviewed and approved by a person who is not the creator.
Conclusion
We have only looked at the critical importance of controlling document flow, and how it is done. On a separate page, Document Flow Processes, we would look at the processes involved in more detail. With the arrival of computers, these processes are changing dramatically.