| The wide acceptance of this book has been very gratifying. This work seems to have taken on a life of its own. The publisher wrote: “Your book over the last year has resulted in the most ‘Buy This Book’ links of our entire catalog … It is very well received by the ‘Googleites.’ ” Sales have exceeded 10,000 at the writing of this third edition.
Why? While management fads come and go, buzz-word programs abound, software acronyms and software applications ebb and fl ow, the basics of engineering documentation control remain the same. The author thinks of himself as “the Vince Lombardi of document control.” Basic blocking and tackling! When the publisher asked for a third edition, it was therefore diffi cult to think of ways to add value. Some restructuring, editing, and much clarifi cation has been done. The index is improved. New chapters on the Supply Chain and on Implementation are combinations of new material and a consolidation of information that was scattered elsewhere in the book.
Whether you think of this subject as Engineering Documentation Control (EDC) or Confi guration Management (CM), it needs to be recognized as a key business strategy. The wall or gap between Engineering and the rest of the world has existed too long in many companies. The “throw it over the wall” syndrome can be overcome. It is prevalent in new product releases, bills of material, change requests, and change processes. Simple, make-sense, fast, accurate, effi cient, measured, and well-understood Engineering Documentation Control/Confi guration Management can tear down that wall—bridge that gap. |
