Every controlled procedure and work instruction has an owner and a review date. Thirty days before the date, the owner gets an email with two buttons, still valid or needs revision, and each answer is logged as review evidence for the next audit.
Typical results
30 days
Notice to the owner before each review date
≈180
Controlled documents tracked with owner and date
≈10 hrs
Saved preparing review evidence for each audit
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
A stamping plant with around 180 controlled procedures and work instructions has to show that each one is reviewed on schedule. Review dates sit in a register nobody checks between audits, so reviews pile up in the weeks before the surveillance audit, and overdue documents are a common minor nonconformity.
Before and after
Reviews completed on time
+58%Overdue documents found at audit
−88%Hours preparing review evidence per audit
−83%The automation
Each document in the register has an owner and a review date. Thirty days before the date, the owner gets an email with the document link and two buttons, 'still valid' or 'needs revision'. A 'still valid' answer logs the review with the date and rolls the next review forward a year. A revision request opens a task for the quality team, and the quality manager gets a monthly list of overdue reviews.
How it works
- 01
Owner and date per document
Each procedure and work instruction in the document register is given an owner and a next review date.
- 02
Email 30 days ahead
The owner receives an email with the document link and two buttons: 'still valid' or 'needs revision'.
- 03
Valid: logged and rolled
A 'still valid' click records the reviewer and date in the register and sets the next review one year out.
- 04
Revision opens a task
A 'needs revision' click opens a task for the quality team with the document, the owner and the reason entered.
- 05
Monthly overdue list
On the first of each month, the quality manager gets a list of reviews that are past due, grouped by owner.
Starts from
- Document register
- Review due dates
Delivers
- Owner review emails
- Revision tasks for quality
- Review evidence log
The impact
Reviews spread across the year instead of piling up before the audit, and about 95% are completed on time. Overdue documents at audit typically fall from around 25 to a handful, and the quality manager prints the review log as evidence instead of spending a day and a half rebuilding it.
Questions about this automation
Where does the document register live?
It can be a Google Sheets or Excel register, or the document list of an existing quality system. The automation needs one row per document with its number, title, the owner's email, a link and the next review date, and it writes each review outcome back to that row.
What if the owner has left or changed roles?
Bounced emails and reviews still unanswered after 14 days appear on the quality manager's monthly overdue list, so the document can be reassigned. Reassigning is a change to the owner column in the register, and the next reminder goes to the new owner automatically.
Does this count as a valid review for the auditor?
The log records who reviewed each document, when, and the outcome, with a link to the version reviewed. That is the kind of evidence auditors usually ask for, and the plant's document control procedure should describe the email confirmation as its method of periodic review.