Document Management
Document Management is the broader logical capability of governing engineering and technical documents across their lifecycle — authoring, classification, review, approval, release, distribution, retention, and destruction — independent of the underlying storage substrate. It encompasses the policies and workflows (who can author what, who must approve, what triggers a revision, how long records are retained for regulatory audit) that surround the file-storage substrate. The KB keeps it as a separate but synonym-linked sibling of Document Vault: the vault is the storage and access-control mechanism; document management is the practice that uses the vault. Because the two terms are used interchangeably across CIMdata, Siemens, PTC, Aras, and ISO 9001 contexts, both notes are retained and explicitly cross-linked rather than collapsed.
Scope vs. Document Vault
| Aspect | Document Management | Document Vault |
|---|---|---|
| Primary concern | Lifecycle policy + governance | File storage + access control |
| Includes workflows | Yes (review, approval, retention) | Indirectly via Workflow Engine |
| Includes retention rules | Yes | Implements |
| Includes search / classification | Yes | Implements |
| ISO touchpoints | ISO 9001 §7.5, ISO 13485 §4.2.4 | (substrate) |
Relationships (see sidebar)
- Synonym of Document Vault — both terms appear in vendor literature for overlapping ideas; this KB keeps both, with
document-managementas the broader practice anddocument-vaultas the storage substrate. - Implemented by Siemens Teamcenter, PTC Windchill, Aras Innovator, Autodesk Vault, Dassault 3DEXPERIENCE, SAP PLM, and Oracle Agile.
- Supports Release Management, Supplier Development, Regulatory Submission, and Configuration Management.
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