‘Documentics’: the electronic management of technical documents
| Published date | 01 March 1994 |
| Date | 01 March 1994 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045291 |
| Pages | 197-200 |
| Author | Marc Ferretti |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Brief
Communication
'Documentics': the
electronic management of
technical documents
Marc Ferretti
255
Boulevard
St
Denis,
92400
Courbevoie,
France
The
need:
a
computerised management system for
technical documents
How can technical documents be managed without actually
having physical access to
the data
contained in them, and yet
provide
a
means
for updating this data
and
distributing it
in
a
manner
that
suits me various work environments
(i.e.
design
departments, commercial departments, manufacturing, etc.)
for which it is intended? The answer: through the use of
computers that make it possible to retrieve each technical
document rapidly and
easily.
Computers can simultaneously
manage both the data contained in each document and the
document
itself,
by means of documentary references
adapted
to me
configuration of
the
documentation.
The purpose of any electronic (or computerised)
management system for technical documents and
publications
is to
meet
the needs
of
industry,
by
providing:
• a
means
of preserving
a
company's memory
(i.e.
its
technical know-how);
• product maintenance:
the
maintenance department
requires
a
source
of reliable
technical
data
in
order
to
make repairs efficiently, without having
to waste
time
looking for
documents.
It essentially
needs a
'portable
maintenance manual',
i.e.
a system for storing
documentary data
on
optical
discs that will
enable it
to
provide maintenance
service anywhere in the
world;
• a coherent technical
data system that will
provide
up-to-date documentation whenever
it is
needed;
• a quality
service,
ensuring
the
quality of
me
contents
of
each
required document;
•
a
standardised
means
of showing
or listing
technical
data
to
avoid
any material problems that may
arise.
The
building blocks of
the
technical
data
system
The elementary building blocks of this technical data system
already exist
today.
Technical document filing and electronic
management
systems are
currently
being
marketed
in
France
by Bertin, Cell, Creativ'System, Dorotech, ID France,
Lascom, Ressources Informatiques, Sete, Seafs, Telmat and
others. They offer various functions, including indexing,
filing, consulting, annotating, updating and visualising
multi-format documents (digitised
drawings,
CAD
files).
Delta Concept
is
currently installing the
Armoire
à
Plans
(the Drawing Cabinet) at the Très Grande Bibliothèque de
France,
France's
new
national
library.
It
has been
designed to
manage
and
store more
than
15 000 plans and drawings
from
80 different companies. The system involves servers
connected via a service integration network with 50
workstations under DOS. Each station has a rapid
visualisation tool for technical
plans and drawings
developed
under
AutoCAD.
A
similar computerised
Armoire
à
Plans
is
scheduled to be in service in three years' time at the future
facilities of Electricité de
France at
Saint-Denis.
Archiv'3000 from Creativ'System is based on a
client/server distributed
architecture.
It
has
a sound message
management module (sound, fixed sound, spoken text)
applied to digitised documents, which makes it possible to
produce multimedia applications. Integration systems for
multimedia data
are also available
from Visutech.
Specific systems combine CAD/CAM
drawings
and plans
with texts produced by computerised office or technical
wordprocessing software packages, as well as such specific
documents as data sheets, process sheets and instruction
sheets
from
set-up
offices.
Computerised tools for managing technical data from
suppliers
of CAD/CAM software,
such as Matra
Datavision
(Euclid-IS) or IBM (Catia), make it possible to expand a
technical documentation system to include drawings, plans
and three-dimensional
scale models
stored
in
databases.
Raft,
intelligent
technical
data software,
was
developed by
a company named Spring, working with Aérospatiale's
specifications (Aircraft Division). The concept behind this
rests on the creation and updating of highly structured
secondary documents, using data (alphanumeric or graphic)
defined in a master document generated by CAD/CAM
software or computer-aided management
and
manufacturing
(CAMM).
Intelligent
technical
documentation
can be
used:
•
to do away with the need
for definitions
and
the
redundant
input
of
data
found
in more than one
document;
•
to
update data in secondary documents
on an
on-going
basis;
•
to produce
more reliable documents.
SPIRIT,
an entirely computerised indexing and research
system for textual data, is part of the EMIR Project
(European Multilingual Information Retrieval) aimed at
developing a document management
system in
a multilingual
The Electronic Library,
Vol.
12,
No.
3,
June 1994 197
To continue reading
Request your trial