Most engineering mistakes aren’t design mistakes.
They’re information mistakes.
A drawing gets emailed.
Someone saves a copy.
A revision happens.
Another team keeps using the old version.
Weeks later — the wrong parts are ordered, fabrication stops, and everyone starts looking for who made the mistake.
But usually no one did.
The real problem is the business never had a controlled engineering information system.
Files were being managed, not engineering decisions.
Modern engineering teams don’t rely on folders and shared drives anymore.
They work inside governed environments where:
• Revisions are controlled
• Approvals are traceable
• Responsibilities are clear
• Teams see the same information at the same time
Instead of chasing drawings, the organisation operates from a single trusted source of engineering truth.
I wrote a short article explaining what engineering data governance actually means in practice and why many projects struggle without it:
https://www.hamiltonbydesign.com.au/engineering-data-governance-3dexperience/
If your project depends on asking “is this the latest revision?”
then the issue isn’t communication — it’s governance.
