Manufacturing companies often handle and generate sensitive documentation as part of their operations and communications with contractors, project coordinators, and end-users. These documents widely range in impact and scale but can include:

• Process validation reports
• Manufacturing instructions and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Test method specifications
• Master formulas
• Validation reports and stability data
• SOPs and specifications for packaging
• Manufacturing and packaging instructions
• Approved supplier lists

These documents must be protected from unauthorized access, even as they are maintained for internal operations, review processes, or external auditing. Regulations pertaining to the manufacturing industry are in place to ensure that products introduced to the market are safe, that materials are sourced properly, and that financial activities are in line with laws and statutes (local, federal, and global).

Retaining Records for the Manufacturing Industry

Manufacturers around the world support a diverse array of businesses, including healthcare, telecommunications, defense, construction, energy, life sciences, agriculture, and consumer products, among others. This web of interaction makes manufacturing one of the higher regulated industries.

These regulations are in place to protect individuals and populations from possible harm, ranging from large-scale damage to the ecosystem from wastewater to inappropriate weaponry sales to faulty surgical gloves in an operating room. This information on product development, materials supply, fabrication, and distribution must be retained and readily available for review to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

Regulations specify how this data, referred to as “records”, must be appropriately managed, secured, and discarded throughout their lifecycle. These regulations often specify how long different types of records must be retained before they are permanently deleted or destroyed. Certain documents however may be retained in “cold storage” or archived – this ensures that the data does not take up unnecessary space in the regularly accessed storage areas (physical or virtual) but also remains relatively accessible should the need arise.

However, with a wide variety of different regulations that each have different requirements for document retention and retention duration, it can make compliance complicated and burdensome. This is where an automated Records Retention Schedule can provide crucial support.

Automating Your Records Retention

There’s no denying how automation has impacted the efficiency of work around the world and across sectors. As technology continues to develop, both in hardware and software, we find more ways to streamline our efforts and automate those tasks that are repetitive and/or time-consuming.

In a FileCloud blog post, we described records retention software as “computer programs designed to systematically control records within an organization.” These programs aim to automate data storage, policy implementation, archival, and deletion. An automated retention schedule can drastically improve operations and remove the burden of bureaucratic red-tape management from your personnel. All it takes is a few simple steps:

1. Define Policy Scope –

Describe why a policy is being implemented, list targeted requirements, and identify affected parties (employees and third-party groups).

2. Classify Data –

New data should be classified automatically by a content classification engine that scans uploaded content and applies appropriate metadata tags.

3. Specify Retention and Protection Measures –

Define policies according to how they will protect data, the procedures they will carry out in relation to data once applied, and what events will occur once the policy expires.

4. Monitor and Report –

Audit logs and SIEM tools provide critical oversight by capturing file, folder, and user activity. Exportable audit logs ensure compliance with internal and external groups.

Records Retention is often a critical element of a company’s data governance strategy. Complementary components include content indexing, federated metadata searching, content classification, data leak protection, security information and event management (SIEM), audit logs and reporting, and, finally, hierarchical retention policies. All of these components can be addressed and incorporated into an automated records retention schedule.

However, finding a solution that includes all of these important elements while also being budget-friendly and enabling easy access for your regular employees can be difficult. Why not make it easier with FileCloud?

FileCloud’s Records Retention Scheduling System

FileCloud is a hyper-secure solution for data storage, sharing, and collaboration, with smart features like DLP, Digital Rights Management, and automated records retention scheduling. Records retention is specifically built on the concept of hierarchical policies that can support compliance with various regulations encountered by manufacturing companies:

• Admin Hold: This hold outranks all other policies and prevents changes/deletion of digital content for an indefinite period of time.

• Legal Hold: Freezes digital content to support information discovery or legal challenges. During a legal hold, file modifications are not permitted.

• Retention: Identifies digital content to be maintained for a specified amount of time before being deleted, moved to cold storage (archival), or released.

• Archival: Moves and stores old organizational content over the long term. No deletion is allowed until a specified time period is reached. After this time, content is moved to a specified folder for disposal.

• Trash Retention: Can be configured for automatic and permanent deletion of all files in the Trash bins or to expire with no actions

FileCloud admins have the power to create policies across files, folders, and metadata sets, which lays the groundwork for the automated records retention schedule. Once policies have been implemented, certain user actions will be restricted, including deletion or manipulation/modification. Admins can even set up error notifications to inform users that an attempted action violates a specific policy. Audit logs capture all activity, including attempted actions that are denied, to provide an accurate overview of data storage and access.

Manufacturing companies can take advantage of the records retention scheduling in FileCloud to help meet compliance requirements. By automating this element of compliance, companies can save money, time, and effort while still meeting the requirements established by various regulatory bodies. You can also take advantage of FileCloud’s other sophisticated features, including sync applications, desktop edit, real-time file collaboration, and third-party app integrations. Stay organized, increase efficiency, and revolutionize operations with FileCloud.