The interactive technical documentation is a tool that has become indispensable for companies, since it allows the user to interact “actively” with the content offered by the resource, giving rise to a direct and shared fruition of information, with the possibility of directly intervening, as needed, during the various stages of execution.
The “generational” transition from a paper or static parts catalog to an multimedia interactive spare parts catalog was by no means easy or immediate, as many companies proved reluctant to abandon a type of working methodology used for so many years.
Companies have since realized the many benefits of using interactive spare parts catalog software, the significant advantages and optimization of the entire technical documentation management that maximizes profits while minimizing the possibility of error.
Through simple and intuitive steps, it is possible to track down and order spare parts in seconds and in total autonomy by browsing through the spare parts tables: a real e-commerce spare parts B2B organized hierarchically into groups, subgroups and components, through which orders can be placed in real time.
A multimedia interactive spare parts catalog can be published either online or offline, depending on the needs of the user (who can then connect from anywhere), and its strengths include:
- the ability to have a dynamically updated technical manuals and spare parts catalog;
- enjoy all content at all times and in your own language, simply through the help of your device;
- integrated order while browsing and automatic tracking of all orders placed.
Automatic creation of interactive 2D and 3D spare parts catalogs
The creation of multimedia interactive spare parts catalog and its consultation represent two of the most time-consuming activities within a company.
The ability to be able to integrate 2D and 3D spare parts catalog software helps to enhance the value of the company and automate the entire fulfillment process, optimizing timelines.
As spare parts catalog software for automatic generation of the interactive technical documentation, Sygest proposes the solution Spare Parts Catalog Builder (link), which targets those companies aiming to improve both the management of spare parts technical manuals (particularly manual generation, data flow and spare parts management) that the service management, improving the efficiency and automation of processes, saving considerable time and resources.
Through a custom connector, all data from ERP – PLM/PDM and CAD (both 2D and 3D) are processed and made available to Spare Part Catalog Builder (link): in this way the company can generate and publish, in full autonomy, spare part catalogs multilingually and in different formats.
Interactive spare parts manuals are compiled quickly, regardless of the amount of data processed, resulting in accurate, detailed and up-to-date data at all times, reducing the possibility of making mistakes during order compilation to zero, while also optimizing costs and procurement time.
The end result is a interactive graphic display of spare parts: exploded 2D tables – 3D models or mixed catalogs, in which interactive content allows the user to add spare parts to cart simply by selecting the required component on the viewer or bill of materials – this is thanks to the e-commerce spare parts (link).
Digitization of technical use and maintenance documentation
Technical documentation plays a very important part in the delivery of the machine from the manufacturer to the end user, and as is well known there are a whole series of very specific regulations governing the creation of a technical manual.
The documentation consists of various parts, the most important of which are the operation and maintenance manual, the spare parts manual, and the one related to all safety aspects.
If handled “manually,” the process of creating technical documentation is likely to become very time-consuming indeed, as each individual context is on its own since the machine in question comes with a totally different configuration.
The process of digitizing technical manuals for interactive spare parts catalog production becomes automatic because the BOMs, 3D drawing and 2D tables become integral parts of the construction phase and are available once the machine is completed.
How to manage the configuration of the operation and maintenance manual
Therefore, very delicate to solve is the problem concerning the configuration of user and maintenance manual: a more complex process to manage automatically because it must rely on configuration rules that use, depending on the possible scenarios, various parts of documents until the digitization of technical documentation through combinations of various tabs/forms, which in turn are compiled according to assigned variables; all of which makes it much easier and, above all, much faster to arrive at the final result.
To solve the problem of setting up the owner’s manual, Sygest offers the Solid Rules module (link): this is a solution that stems from the commercial bidding configurator (link) also from Solid Rules, and takes advantage of its ability to assemble a document from the configuration of various choices.
The system is document-oriented and provides a very smart, comprehensive and easy-to-use environment compared to all other solutions that have been on the market for years.
The configurator is based on the structure of the bill of materials and considers possible variants on a given type of machine; it allows content to be prepared that can then be reused for technical manuals for similar machines.
In addition, it makes possible the creation of a flow of data and rules then used for the management of translations and revision of adopted and translated content, allows the use of layout masters created through Adobe InDesign software, and also the generation of technical documentation done in Adobe InDesign and Acrobat PDF format.
More info
To receive more information about the proposed software solutions (Spare Parts Catalog Builder and Solid Rules) and the topics covered, we invite you to email us at e.corradini@sygest.it.