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Closed-loop Document Release Notification System: SilTerra Malaysia
case study
Rashitah Binti Rahmat
Section Manager, SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia
rashitah_rahmat@silterra.com
Dr. Che Azlan Taib
Deputy Director/Senior Lecturer
Quality Management Institute, School of Technology Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia
c.azlan@uum.edu.my
ABSTRACT
SilTerra Malaysia Sdn Bhd, a semiconductor wafer fabrication facility runs on interlinked online quality
management systems. Online process documents and tool parameters are connected to lot traceability
system. Revised or new process related documents released to the intranet after workflow approval will
result in process and tool parameters to be updated automatically. It is critical that manufacturing-related
employees are aware of the changes made on these documents. These changes need to be communicated
and understood to ensure that work practices are carried out per revised documents. This paper presents
how a closed-loop document release notification is implemented in SilTerra.
Keywords: paperless, document control, document release notification, closed-loop
1.0 Introduction
SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. is a semiconductor manufacturing facility. In 2001 it was certified to
ISO9001:2000 as its quality management system (QMS). ISO9001:2008 requires six documented
procedures and clause 4.23 (Control of Document), states the requirements of controlling documents in an
organization.
SilTerra adopts a paperless document control system. Two online applications, Document Management
System (DMS) and Document File Management (DFM) are developed in-house by the Quality Assurance
team. DMS serves as a database where one can find master lists of internal and external documents retained
and also as a platform for document writers reserve documents to revise and submit them for approval.
Requests for documents to be shared to external and internal parties, documents read access control and
distribution list of documents are done in this database. DFM is a database used to store all versions of a
document – obsolete, current and draft copies that are in the approval loop. DFM was released in January
2013. Before this, SilTerra was using different software bought from external. After realizing that
purchased software could not meet internal users’ requirements, it was decided that a database to be built
in-house. DFM is only accessible to the document control group. It is linked to DMS and is transparent to
other users.
All revised and newly written controlled documents are sent out for approval through preset workflows.
History of documents approval, along with comments from document signers, if any is available to all DMS
users. Upon document approval, it is released to the relevant internal and external parties subscribing to it.
Figure 1 describes the document control flow. Various online reports are made available and transparent to
all document users.
SilTerra runs on a paperless QMS. The incoming materials are approved in the online system before
delivered to the organization’s premise. Interlinked online system runs the manufacturing floor. Lot
traceability is controlled by FactoryWorks (FW) system; meanwhile all process specifications and tool
parameters are controlled online. When a document is revised or newly released, these interlinked systems
will extract required data and update the necessary fields in FW automatically. It is therefore necessary for
all internal parties to be aware and understand the changes made to avoid any misprocess or errors.
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Previously, SilTerra document control practice ends when a document is released to the intranet after
approval. Even though relevant parties are notified on this release through e-mail, there is no tracking or
assurance that all changes made to a document are understood and importantly, implemented.
Nonconformance has been raised to address issues on wrongly running a tool or ignorance on process
changes. Initial effort of tracking employees reading and understanding the document changes manually
was not successful as it was tedious and troublesome. Employees do not have the luxury to read all
Engineering Change Notices (ECN) every time each revised document is released. Some will need to look
at the important points only and this needs time. Therefore, a closed loop document release notification for
both external and internal parties was implemented to ensure that all related parties are notified on a revised
or newly released document.
.
Figure 1 – Document Control Process Flow
2.0 Empirical Case Study
2.1 Literature Review
Manufacturing industries use ISO9001 to tackle human issues (Fore 2011). One of the biggest challenge
faced by organizations on maintaining ISO9001, according to Ab Wahid and Corner (2009) are regarding
people – these include employees, subcontractors and communication. Examples of these are employees not
following procedures, not taking internal audits seriously and taking certification for granted. Likewise,
Tang and Kam (1999) reported that making employees understand and accept the standard was tough.
Employees are skeptical if ISO9001 will help their work due to the number of documentation involved.
Organizations choose quality management software to reduce quality cost and reduce nonconformance
(Littlefield and Roberts 2014). An online system generates report on time-set basis, along with action item
owners that are easily tracked. Escalation can be set in advance to ensure prompt action. An intranet-based
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quality management system also helps organizations improve co-ordination and communication between
internal external parties (Hussain et al 2009).
Document control has a direct influence in an organization (Smith 2011). It is not surprising that data
showed document control is found to be one of the highest nonconformance issued during audit. The main
objectives of moving to paperless for an organization are to be more organized, consistent in document
control activities (Harpaz, 2005 and Medina & Andrews 2009). Document control, set up properly can be
used as one of the preventive actions to a management process. An electronic document management
system organizes, manages and retrieves documents efficiently (Mohd Hashim & Ismail 2013). In general,
an electronic document management system should have these features (Bailey 2012): document templates,
document security, approval workflow, secure document access, ability to store any types of documents and
version control. One item to note also is that despite all the steps taken to implement a paperless document
management system, processes, products, regulatory and customer requirements change regularly (Johnston
2013).
Regardless of numerous number of software or applications available in the market or developed internally,
no system is perfect (Johnston 2013). Investing in the paperless system has been proven to not only increase
productivity and efficiency, but also save thousands of dollars yearly (Bailey 1975), Johnston (2013) and
Baxter (1998)). The other plus point for electronic document management system is that it is error-free
(Wichelecki 2009). Many organizations are now heading to paper reduction after result showed that
electronic technology is yielding positive output (Medina & Andrews 2009).
2.2 Background: Document Management System (DMS) Enhancement
DMS was enhanced to add more features after a document is released after approval. As detailed in Figure
1, documents will be released to the internal party at least. Some documents are released to external parties:
suppliers (at MyVendor portal) and customers (MyFab portal). Both customers and suppliers are alerted by
auto e-mail upon document uploaded to these portals. Document release notification to customers are
optional, only if subscribed by customers while suppliers are required to acknowledge receipt of document
uploaded in MyVendor portal. This is being monitored by the Supplier Quality Engineering (SQE) group.
For all documents released, internally, two parties are required to respond to auto e-mails generated by the
DMS. The first group are document writers who are required to review documents published to ensure that
released documents are the exact copy of the revised document submitted. Time limit given is seven days. If
there were no responses received from the document writers, it is assumed that the documents are published
correctly. Evidence of this response is captured in the same page of the document approval history for easy
traceability.
The second group to respond to the document release notification auto e-mail is the document readers. List
of documents related to the manufacturing and engineering groups was prepared and identified in DMS. For
initial implementation stage, target group for this exercise will be all shifts for the Manufacturing crew.
Selected participants are the Manufacturing Engineers and Assistant Manufacturing Engineers. These
participants work in different shifts and are responsible to monitor a specific group of Technical Specialists
and Manufacturing Technicians. Upon document release, Manufacturing Engineers are given ten days to
read, understand and respond in DMS. Refer to Figure 2 for sample of DMS response notification page. If
a particular revised document affects his/her area, he/she needs to plan what action needs to be generated
such as training to all employees in the module, or a briefing session to announce a new customer
requirement or change in work method. These Engineers will need to announce this to all Manufacturing
Technicians at the beginning of the shift. A summary of all documents released for the day can be viewed
from online reports in DMS. If the change affects the operation procedure of a particular tool, training to all
manufacturing technicians maybe necessary. Related operation procedure checklist(s) will be updated and
evidence of training done will be reflected in the training database.
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Figure 2 – Sample of DMS Notification Response Page
2.3 Research methodology
There are two broad categories of research data, qualitative and quantitative method. Qualitative research
refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characters, metaphors, symbols and descriptions of things
while the quantitative research involves the counting of things; it has a specific amount to be counted,
calculated and measured. It depends on data to interpret the result. A qualitative research adopted for this
study is to investigate how a closed-loop document release notification is implemented in SilTerra. In
addition, the qualitative approach was chosen because this aims to do an exploratory research and intends to
explore about human behavior on how they involved and contribute in paperless documentation control.
Responses of document readers are monitored by the document control group. Since documents are
structured according to modules, reports are generated by responses from each module. Even though
participants are working on shifts, the time limit given (ten days) for them to respond to this activity is
deemed sufficient. The response button will not be available after the response time expires. Reason for
this is that another revision of a particular document may be released or there will be too many documents
are released within ten and days and the latest revision will be the priority. Employees who are on long leave
can still view list of documents released for a particular week. Weekly reports are generated and distributed
to all Manufacturing Engineers and their supervisors for review and escalation. The responsibility of
ensuring that changes to a revised document are disseminated to all employees on shift is given to the
Manufacturing Supervisor. Evidence of this is reviewed in manufacturing audits.
2.4 Key Findings
2.4.1 Improvement in document released response rate
Prior to this exercise, training to all parties involved was held. As written by Ab Wahid and Corner (2009)
and Ab Wahid, Corner and Tan (2011), training awareness on ISO9001 requirements is necessary to help
employees perform their job better. Requesting Manufacturing Engineers and Technicians to read all
documents related to their areas is not an easy task. Some did not know why it is important to read and
understand all changes made. Culture change involving loads of paperwork and the process of getting
certification can be exhausting thus reducing employee morale and motivation (Rezaei & Baalousha 2011).
Having a web-based system does not guarantee that employee performance will improve. Initial follow up
was done closely. Weekly reports published were sent out to the relevant parties and progress is being
highlighted. Modules with low response rate were escalated to the Management.
2.4.2 More visibility on changes in documents revised affecting specific module
Weekly reports published include all documents released and the relevant changes made to that particular
revision. Document types for the manufacturing module consist of operation, process, equipment, statistical
process control and out of control action plans. Respondents are able to have a summary of all changes and
are able to plan the next action.
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2.4.3 Increase customer’s confidence in communication throughout the organization
Changes highlighted in a revised document may originate from internal or external (customers). Customer
requirements channelled through the Sales and Marketing team are communicated to the manufacturing
floor. These changes are notified to all affected in less than 2 minutes. By having a document release
notification response system, customers are confident that the changes requested are documented,
communicated and executed to all affected parties in the organization. Previous practice of responding
through e-mails was proven as not effective because the evidence was not retained and traceability to this
was very poor.
The notification response data is retained in DMS for as long as the document is active, in minimum. It is
traceable to the history of the specification and training database. External audit result on this have been
positive from both customers and audit registrar.
3.0 Conclusion
ISO9001 requirements for document control which involve documents to be approved before published
until ensuring that only the latest revision is available for all readers is sufficient for most organizations. For
a manufacturing organization such as SilTerra, these requirements need to be extended after the document is
distributed to all affected parties. It is important that changes to a document originating from either internal
or external (customers, statutory or regulatory) are communicated to all parties affected. Some changes may
require training while some only require a briefing session or no responses or actions are required.
Document traceability from ECN initiated to document release is made easy by electronic document
management system. Records of issues raised during this approval process are captured and can be viewed
immediately. Online reports are helpful for those who want to inquire about a particular issue. These reports
are transparent to all and retrievable whenever required even after office hours and off-shifts.
Online quality management systems are audit-friendly too. Linked systems help retrieve lot information
from various sub-systems allowing faster data analysis. Record of action items generated and executed from
internal and external document changes provide evidence of management commitment to customer
requirements. This provides confidence to external parties such as customers and audit registrar on an
organization’s quality management system.
References
Ab Wahid, R. & Corner, J., 2009. Critical success factors and problems in ISO 9000 maintenance.
International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 26(9), pp.881–893. Available at:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/02656710910995073 [Accessed February 11, 2014].
Bailey, A., 2012. Paperless. , (August), pp.32–33. Available at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com.
Fore, S., 2011. Identifying Quality Improvement Opportunities in a Manufacturing Enterprise. In 2011
IEEE IEM. pp. 1354–1358.
Harpoz, J., 2005. The Path to Paperless. Accounting Technology, pp.14–15.
Hussain, Z., Barber, K. & Hussain, N., 2009. Journal of Engineering and An Intranet based system as an
enabler in effective project management and implementation of quality standards : A case study. , 26,
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at: www.qualityprogress.com.
Malaysian Standard MS ISO9001:2008, Quality Management Systems – Requirements (First Revision)
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Smith, J., 2011. Document Control is a Cornerstone of Effective QMS DOCUMENT CONTROL. Quality
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Authors’ Backgrounds
Rashitah binti Rahmat is a Section Manager in Quality Assurance System at
SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd, a semiconductor wafer manufacturing facility. She
received her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern
University, Evanston, IL, USA in 1991. She has been involved in ISO9001
activities since 1991 till now. Her main functions in SilTerra include
maintaining and improving both quality and hazardous substance process
management systems. She was responsible for setting up the paperless document
control system in SilTerra. Rashitah also co-ordinates internal audit activities
for ISO9001, IECQ QC 080000 and TS16949 and a trained auditor for
ISO14001, OHSAS 18001 management systems.
Dr. Che Azlan Taib is a Senior Lecturer at Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok,
Kedah, Malaysia. He also acts as a Deputy Director at Quality Management
Institute, Universiti Utara Malaysia. He received his Doctor of Philosophy from
Universiti Utara Malaysia. Currently he teaches Quality Management, Strategic
Planning and Quality Management System at School of Technology
Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia. As a deputy director, his
responsibilities are managing and maintaining quality management system,
conducting quality training programs, as well as doing consultation activities.
