Expert: Scottgem - 11/23/2004

Question
 Scott,
   i run a small machine/job shop and am looking for a computer program that will help in organizing the various  quality control documents that i have to deal with everyday. here is the scenario, everytime we have a repeat job come in for production, we have to print out routers, these are documents that follow the specific job throughout each workstation to make sure all critical dimensions are tracked. now in order to do this, i have a whole slew of "master copies" that i have to dig out of a file cabinet, then make copies of, then put back. this doesnt sound like much, but this routine is happening sometimes many times a day. this can get to be very time consuming. here is my question, i would like to know if there is such a program that i can have running on the office PC, where all i have to do is type in the appropriate part# and this program will go and access all the documents associated with the job, then all i would have to do is hit a key and all the documnets will print out for me. this would save me so much time and even simplify it so anybody in the office can do it. i hope i was desriptive enough about what i am looking for. any suggestions on your part would be greatly appreciated. thank you, and have a nice thanksgiving.
-Mark

Answer
There is no specific program that will do what you want. One program that you might be able to adapt for the task is Paperport. Paperport is a document management program that is relatively inexpensive (About $200). With Paperport you could assign keywords to documents (the Part #) then search for all the doucments that match that part # and print them.

Another way to go is with a database program. You can use something like Microsoft Access and set it up so you can key in a part # and it would print out a set of documents partially filled in. If you are interested I can give you a quote on developing an Access app that will do this for you.

Hope this helps,
Scott<>