From Reducing Air Pollution to Improving Document Management — CARB Has the Answer
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is a state government air quality and emissions control agency that is constantly looking for better and more effective ways to reduce airborne pollutants. To improve their business, CARB sought a way to better, and more efficiently, manage their high volume of hard copy documentation, while streamlining their review process.
It takes tremendous effort for CARB to both monitor motor vehicle and engine manufacturers and ensure their compliance with California's emission standards. Annually, CARB must review thousands of conformity applications submitted by hundreds of manufacturers worldwide. The conformity applications submitted by the various manufacturers routinely consist of over 100 pages of printed material. These documents are categorized and passed from one department to the next for review and approval. An integral part of the conformity review and approval process is the hard-copy retention of all supporting documentation for future reference. This documentation volume puts a strain on CARB's storage space, which is increasingly in high demand and in short supply. CARB employees spend an inordinate amount of time manually searching through the archived documents and applications to retrieve information.
OpenEDMS enterprise content management allows CARB to manage the certification process and store all conformity applications and documentation in a centralized repository. Manufacturers can now upload digital documents to this repository, allowing immediate access from any where in the world. Stringent security measures protect the data, while flexible controls provide access to the appropriate information. No longer do CARB employees need to traverse a mountain of paper when searching for information. The sophisticated search capabilities of OpenEDMS enable the quick and easy retrieval of documentation, based on a flexible set of parameters.
Since applications are uploaded digitally by the manufacturer, a workflow review is automatically triggered. The workflow design tool allows the CARB staff to develop stage–by–stage templates that automate, streamline, and standardize the review and evaluation process. Gone are the days of having applications move slowly from reviewer desk to reviewer desk, ultimately languishing in someone's to-do box. OpenEDMS gives the ability to electronically submit, store, and process all conformity documents and applications. All documents can now be electronically submitted for review and automatically routed to the appropriate employees, thereby boosting process efficiency.
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