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Technical Documentation for USAFA Process-Based Approach to Effective Technical Orders

To properly focus on the Warfighter, the Air Force must adequatelysupport the men and women who are responsible for the maintenanceand repair of our Air Force weapon systems.

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Whi te Paper Technical Documentation for USAF Page 1 of 15

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Introduction

A U.S. Air Force Technical Order (TO) contains all policies and pro-cedures related to maintenance and/or operation of specific AirForce weapon systems. A TO may discuss policies and proceduresfor inspecting a fuel tank, for preventing aircraft corrosion, forloading ordnance, or for myriad other tasks associated with systemperformance or preventive maintenance. TOs are used by aircraftmaintainers, supply personnel, aircrew, depot personnel and manyother members supporting the operation and maintenance of aweapon system. The Air Force is working to provide all TO users’quality, up-to-date, technically accurate, and user-friendly docu-mentation.

Today the majority of the TO processing system is currently basedupon distribution of paper documents and CDs/DVDs to the user.Management of these products requires significant resources andpresents delivery challenges. In addition, the process of changingthese documents over a period of time has resulted in proliferation ofsupplements and delays in distribution. The advent of modern digi-tal technologies and new standards continually paves the way towardpotential solutions to these and related issues.

The Air Force’s ultimate objective is to provide a Technical Order formatthat is user-friendly, technically accurate, up-to-date, and distributedelectronically. By focusing on a more process-based approach to build-ing TOs, with reusable components in a more modular format, the AirForce can continually move toward better efficiency gains across thebranches.


Just think:

• What if you could provide a user friendly, technically accurate, andup-to-date digital technical data at the point of use that is acquired,sustained, distributed and available in digital format from a singlepoint of access for all technical data users?

• What if you could provide your aircraft maintainers, aircrew, depot,and supply personnel, and many other members supporting theoperation and maintenance of a weapon system with real-time,customized instructions with embedded interactive illustrations andstep-by-step instructions for the required service procedure?

• What if you could guarantee the accuracy of all your technicalorders by ensuring that key text components and product illustra-tions automatically update when product designs change?

• What if you could continue to support the paper processes whileadvancing to a desired digital end state where data could beaccessed by an Electronic-Tool. Thereby reducing paper libraries,warehouses, and the shipping of physical products.

• What if you could automatically deliver personalized documentation to all your flight line maintainers, while quadru-pling the frequency of documentation updates?

• What if you could eliminate the need to create 1/3 of all new documents by making it easy to reuse existing information?

• What if you could increase TO functionality to improve user produc-tivity, and decrease TO distribution time?

The following paper will discuss how you can improve the quality ofyour publications, and why a product development system that incor-porates publishing in your product development processes is essentialto solving your information quality problems.

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Contents

Current Challenges with Technical Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Poor Information Quality Impacts Organizational Performance and Profitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Traditional Technical Publishing Systems Limit the Benefits of ECM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

When Should an Organization Consider Adopting an Process-Based Approach to Publishing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Best-Practice Approach to Creating and Managing Technical Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Creating Technical Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Collaboration Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Content Control and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Configuration Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Communicating Content – Publishing Technical Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Choosing the Right System Architecture – Critical Component for Automating Publication Processes . . . .13

A Process-Based Approach to Effective Technical Orders . . . . . . . .13Flexible System Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

PTC Global Services Ensures Organizations Realize the Maximum Value from Their Dynamic Publishing Investment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Traditional Technical Publishing Systems Limit the Benefits of Enterprise Content Management (ECM)Manufacturers with limited content management experience believethat deploying a content management system alone will solve theirtechnical publications problems. Content management systems offerorganizations the ability to impose controls over the process related tocontent creation and publishing. As a result, users can have a formal,predictable and secure way of assigning tasks for creating new informa-tion or updating existing information. However, traditional publishingsystems, such as word-processing and desktop publishing software,waste organizations' time and resources while limiting the benefits thatECM can deliver. This waste arises from the way that traditional word-processing and desktop publishing software lets authors create andpublish information.

The primary limitations of traditional word-processing and desktoppublishing software include:

• Manual updates. Copying/pasting content is a common method for making changes when using desktop publishing. Although thismethod may add to authoring efficiency when creating a stand-alone document, it greatly complicates the maintenance of docu-ments. Changes to content require authors to manually search andupdate redundant content in multiple sections within multiple documents. Changes are the writer’s nightmare, and account for amajor portion of authors’ “wasted effort”. Additionally, the processis error-prone and often causes inconsistencies or inaccuracies inpublished content.

• Manual formatting. Authors typically spend between 30% and50% of their time formatting documents in traditional publishing applications applying character, paragraph and page styles. Evenwhen provided with authoring templates, most authors make formatting and style changes to each document as they write. If thedocument is a small, simple, one-off communication such as amemo or email, the wasted effort of manual design and formattingis usually not significant. However, for long documents composedfrom legacy information and subjected to repeated revision cycles,this manual effort compounds and leads to an excessive waste ofmanpower, resulting in inefficiency and production delays.

• Recreating existing content. Authors will recreate content thatalready exists if they cannot find it. And when they do find the content, authors typically copy and paste it into the new document.Both approaches are wasteful because making subsequent improvements to the information requires finding, updating, andreviewing all documents containing the repeated passage, caption,or phrase. Furthermore, rewriting content instead of reusing it notonly increases the cost and time to develop the content, but alsoraises the risk that redundant information is inconsistent with other documents, making it even more difficult to update.

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Current Challenges with Technical Documentation

Poor Information Quality Impacts Organizational Performance and Profitability The inability to reuse information and to automate publishing is oneof the largest areas of inefficiency today. Today the majority of theTOprocess/system is currently based upon distribution of paper docu-ments and CDs/DVDs to the point of use. Management of these prod-ucts requires significant resources and presents delivery concerns. Inaddition, the process of changing these documents over a period oftime has resulted in proliferation of cumbersome supplements anddelays in distribution. The advent of modern digital technologiescontinually paves the way toward potential solutions to these andrelated issues.

Efforts over the past few years have been successfully made toupdate particularly cumbersome TOs. The Air Force is determined tocontinually improve and re-engineer the TO system. Requirementshave been collected over the years for the acquisition, sustainment,management, distribution, and use of TOs.

Due to the many legacy TO systems and the vast amount of data thathas been collected over the years, it is important to realize that replac-ing paper with electronic means will be a committed journey. The AirForce will continually modify & develop the proper transitionplan/roadmap for migrating from the current paper environment tothe desired electronic end-state. Nevertheless, both environmentswill continually be of importance to the Air Force until such a datewhere the electronic TO environment can cost effectively replace theentire current paper environment

Planning Concept Design Validate Production Support

Management

Sales & Mktg.

Engineering

Sourcing

Manufactur ing

Ser vice

Product Development Processes

Program Management

New Product In t roduct ion

Por t fo l io Management

Regulator y Compliance

Quali ty Management

Change and Configurat ion Management

Proposal Response

Requirements Capture & Management

Concept Development

System Design

Detai led Design

Variant Design and Generat ion

Veri f icat ion & Val idat ion

Design Outsourcing

Advanced Sourcing

Manufactur ing Process Management

Tool ing & Factor y Equipment Design

Manufactur ing Outsourcing

Technical Publ icat ions

Ser vice Program Management

Equipment Management

Per formance Analysis

Component & Suppl ier Management

Product Market ing Publ icat ions

Regulator ySubmiss ions

ProposalResponses

Data Sheets& Par ts Catalogs

EngineeringSpeci f icat ions

User Guides &Training Courses

Ser vice Documentat ion

Mfg. Process P lans

Technical Publications are important to many Product Development Processes

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• Lack of structure. Inconsistencies in the sequence and structure ofinformation across similar documents make the content more difficult for readers to understand and more difficult for yourauthors to find and update. Unstructured information is impossibleto re-use or automatically format. A computer program cannotprocess inconsistent input—the classic “garbage in, garbage out”problem. Lack of structure adds redundant cycles of review and editto the publishing process, as multiple updates must be circulated.

• Inefficient process for creating technical illustrations. Technicalillustrations are core to technical publications. A typical companydevelops hundreds to millions of technical illustrations and maintains those illustrations for the life of the product. For mostcompanies, the process of creating technical illustrations is riddledwith inefficiencies. First, the vast majority of illustrations areredrawn from scratch or with reference to a 2D product image usinggeneral-purpose illustration systems. General-purpose illustrationtools are excellent for drawingfree-form graphics, photo-editingand touch-up, and creating high-quality color images. However,these tools can't understand the technical aspects of manufacturedproducts, and provide no means to speed and simplify commontasks performed by technical illustrators.

A second major area of inefficiency is the process of transferringproduct data to technical illustrators. Illustrators often get informa-tion about their subject from engineers and designers who designedthe product using 3D CAD and 2D engineering drawings. However,few companies take advantage of their rich CAD data. Illustratorsrely on CAD users to open the CAD file, orient the product or assembly in a precise position, take a screen shot, and send thestored file to the illustrator. If the illustrator needs another view, the CAD user needs to repeat the process. It’s no wonder that CAD users view this process as low value-add and are not responsive to illustrators’ requests. And what happens if there’s a change to theproduct? Illustrators have to go back to the CAD user for updates,and then manually reapply their own changes. And, since illustrators are not welcome by CAD users, it’s not a surprise thatthey are reluctant to go back for updates. This process is furthercomplicated if the technical illustration process is outsourced, further delaying the availability of the finished publications.Coupled with the fact that illustrators often don’t find out aboutchanges to the product that require updates to the illustration, it’snot uncommon that publications do not reflect the configurationof the product in the field, a situation that ultimately results inincreased costs.

So, if desktop publishing and word processing are so problematic, whyare they so popular? For most organizations using these methods, traditional publishing software actually provides many benefits compared to the publishing tools it replaced. For example, desktop publishing provides a quick and easy way to make changes and previewthe result before printing. However, while desktop publishing may be appropriate for some types of documents, many companies areunaware that there is an alternative that lets you publish better infor-mation more efficiently.

Example: Typical technical illustration process within a manufacturer

The technical documentation process typically begins within engineering,which, using mechanical and/or electrical CAD software, creates a design.That design, or more precisely, a rendition of that design, is passed to a tech-nical illustrator. The illustrator adds line art, removes unnecessary details,and makes the graphic suitable for publication. A vast majority of illustra-tions are redrawn from scratch using general-purpose illustration systemsthat do not understand the technical aspects of manufactured products. Thisprocess is further complicated if the technical illustration process is outsourced.The graphic is then passed on to a writer, likely in a format such as CGM,JPEG or GIF. Changes to original product content can wreak havoc to workin process documentation, requiring all downstream functions to redomassive amounts of work.

Since making changes has proven so problematic, those involved in technicalpublications often wait until the last moment to begin the process, hoping thatsuch a tactic will minimize the likelihood of change. However, this method,too, is undesirable because it places technical publications on the critical pathof product development. Often, manufacturers find that they may havethe physical product ready, but are unable to ship due to a lack of supportingdocumentation.

These issues are further complicated by the typically chaotic environmentalready in place. Disconnected silos of information, lack of data version control, inadequate security/information access, and inefficient means ofinternal/external communication, all serve to exacerbate the above prob-lems. For example, the Change Management Process for the engineering ordesign group is often completely disconnected from the technical publicationsgroup. As a result, changes in design are not communicated formally,consistently, and automatically.

HTML

PDFEnglish

PDFGerman

PDFOthers

HTMLGerman

HTMLJapanese

HTMLOthers

JPEGor

redrawnJPEG

Native CAD Native Illustration MS Word

CAD (t,$) Technical Illustration (t,$) Word Processing (t,$)

Translation (t,$)

Translation (t,$)

Web Authoring (t,$)

Change = Rework

Change = Rework Change = Rework

Change = Rework

Change = Rework

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When Should an Organization Consider AdoptingProcess-Based Approach to Publishing? • Multi-channel Delivery–When you have to deliver content in print

on the Web, in online help, to wireless devices, or to additionalformats and media types, traditional publishing software requiresyou to assign someone to manually format your content for eachdifferent media type. Not only does this manual effort waste timeand money, it also leads to inconsistencies in the resulting content,which can lead to customer dissatisfaction or legal liability.

• Multiple Embedded Diagrams–The inability to embed interactiveillustrations which automatically update when content changes,forces authors to write excessive verbal descriptions and incorporate inaccurate, out-of-date graphics.

• Large Volume–The more content you create, the more costly itbecomes to use traditional publishing software, because authorstypically spend as much as half their time formatting documents—a waste of time and money.

• Repeatable Processes–The more frequently you create and publishdocuments of a particular type, such as flight manuals to routineaircraft maintenance manuals the more consistent the documentsshould be in style and structure.

• Personalized Content–Consumers of information increasinglyexpect content to be tailored to meet their needs. They want onlycontent that is relevant to their use case.

• Configurable Products–If you sustain highly configurable productswith multiple user variants.

• Dynamic Content–If portions of the content change frequently.

• Interactive Content–The Web and, to varying degrees, other electronic delivery media are great at providing an interactive experience to the end user. Features such as advanced navigationaids, hotspots, hyperlinks and dynamically showing or hiding content engage the end user and provide a faster, more satisfyingexperience.

Best-Practice Approach to Creating and Managing Technical Publications

An effective technical publishing system must allow for concurrentdevelopment of the product and accompanying illustrated publicationsacross a distributed environment. The system must address all phases ofcontent development: content creation, collaboration and review withsubject matter experts; control and management of content; configu-ration management; and automatic communication by distributingcontent to multiple targets and publishing to multiple media. Thesecapabilities must be built on an architecture that maximizes the system’s usability and reliability, and minimizes deployment costs.

Another key to successful automation is an absolutely consistent,standardized structure and non-proprietary data format. Bear inmind that the publishing process cannot be fully automated with-out the ability to automatically create technical illustrations. Thepublishing system must provide capabilities to create illustrationsthat would leverage accurate product design data, to automaticallycreate high-quality illustrations by removing insignificant detailsand emphasizing key details, and to maintain the accuracy of pub-lications by automatically updating all illustrations when productdesigns or configurations change.

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Creating Technical PublicationsThe key to successful automation of the publication process is compo-nentization. By splitting up your documents into reusable componentsthat are big enough to be worth managing separately, yet small enoughto reuse in multiple instances, you can create a single source of information, so that making just one change can update multiple documents at once.

Componentization is also critical for personalization. Creating informa-tion in smaller components allows you to set up a system to assembleand reuse those components dynamically to suit the needs of variousaudiences. To make componentization work, the components must beinterchangeable, and they must fit correctly into the publications thatcontain them. For example, you may choose to create two different sizesof components such as ‘warnings’ and ‘topics’, where warnings fit intotopics and topics fit into books.

Essentials of Automated Publishing System:

Componentization – enables reuse, single-sourcing and personalization

Structure and Consistency – essential for automation

Single Source – eliminate the ongoing time and expense of maintaining redundant information, while ensuring its integrity

Separation of Content from Formatting – required to deliver the same information in multiple documents and file formats with multiple styles

Automation – assemble information for multiple audiences, and publish to multiple types of media, without human intervention

XML/SGML enables several critical requirements for automating the publishing process.

Through XML/SGML, one can specify the size of the reusable information compo-nents in a consistent way, enabling easy interchange of one component for another. PTC supports both DITA and S1000D. These applications bring state-of-the-art support to developing and publishing of componentized, reusable information.

XML/SGML makes structure explicit and ensures absolute consistency of your documents. In that respect, XML and SGML are unique. No other standard data format can represent all types of information – text, data and graphics.

By enforcing consistent structure of all document components, XML/SGML facilitates identification and consolidation of redundant content, and reuse and re-purposing of information components.

XML/SGML also enables the separation of content from its presentation. XML/SGML represents information in a “media neutral” form that is not constrained by the limitations and capabilities of any particular medium, so you can create information in its “pure” form, and separately process it to produce information products.

One of the advantages of this separate process is that through automation, the information can be presented with absolutely consistent formatting regardless of the author, and it can take full advantage of the capabilities of each medium. Publishing systems that leverage the S1000D or DITA data models enable organiza-tions to adapt their XML/SGML data models to better meet different needs, while preserving interoperability with similar XML/SGML models and with all downstream applications that use a SGML or DITA-based data model.

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Arbortext Editor

Authors use Arbortext Editor to author business, technical, and referencedocuments. Arbortext enables you to: create and edit XML and SGMLcontent; work with content both as components and as compound docu-ments; reuse content across your organization; and improve the accura-cy, consistency and flexibility of your information. Arbortext looks andworks like familiar word processing software – yet provides all the powerand flexibility authors need. Arbortext lets authors attach audience information to content for producing customized publications, andembed data from databases, business systems, and other data sources.Using Arbortext for document authoring enables a company to automatethe publications process and benefit from dynamic publishing.

Arbortext IsoDraw (Formally ITEDO)

Arbortext IsoDraw is the ideal tool for companies that need to incorpo-rate product information in their technical publications. ArbortextIsoDraw enables illustrators to create high-quality technical illustrationsin a quick and cost effective way. Illustrations can be created fromscratch, photo-traced, or by reusing existing data (scans, CAD data etc).Arbortext IsoDraw automatically converts 3D design data into technicalillustrations, thus offering an unprecedented productivity increase: CADfiles that normally would take hours to edit are now available in a matterof minutes. Finished illustrations can be reused in all standardDTP/Publishing systems. In addition, Arbortext IsoDraw provides a widerange of functions for preparing illustrations for delivery on CD-ROM orvia the Internet. By automatically embedding illustrations derived fromPro/ENGINEER or other CAD design tools (thorugh IGES, VRML, STEP,VDA, SAT, Parasolid, EDZ, and PVZ) into Arbortext-authored documents,companies can create rich publications that communicate informationaccurately and quickly.

Pro/ENGINEER

PTC’s integrated 3D CAD/CAM/CAE solution, Pro/ENGINEER, allowsdesigners to model faster than ever, while maximizing innovation andquality to, ultimately, create industry winning products. And, becausePro/ENGINEER applications are fully integrated, you can develop every-thing from the design concept to manufacturing tool paths within oneapplication, with the confidence of knowing every design change willautomatically be propagated to all downstream deliverables.

For over 20 years, PTC has been instrumental in solving the challenges surrounding the development of complex content. Both Arbortext Editor and Pro/ENGINEER share the same concept of modular design and associativity of content. Furthermore, Abrortext IsoDraw leverages Pro/ENGINEER and otherCAD content to create rich technical illustrations.

CREATE content with Arbortext ® and Pro/ENGINEER®

Essentials of Automated Publishing Sy

Componentization – enables reuse, sinpersonalization

Structure and Consistency – essential

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Collaboration RequirementsThe key to efficient technical documentation development is to allowauthors to work on different publication components simultaneously.By replacing linear redundant processes with concurrent processes, youcan substantially reduce the overall publishing cycle.

Technical publications typically have multiple contributors who areoften geographically dispersed. Project collaboration tools are requiredto enable work-in-process collaboration with subject matter expertsfrom both within and outside your organization. Efficient collaborationrequires the flexibility to allow individual contributors to work independently to generate digital content and to periodically share thatcontent with each other. At the same time, team members need a com-mon view of the project plan and current status. Content managementtools must detect important changes and automatically notify projectmembers. Furthermore, these tools should protect content from unau-thorized changes, maintain a history log of all document modifications,enforce interim checkpoints, and manage multiple review and approvalcycles. Configuration management capabilities are necessary to ensurethat authors are working with the right version of content; this resultsin higher productivity and quality.

COLLABORATE with Arbortext Content Manager®

Effective collaboration can improve the quality of your content, acceler-ate time-to-market, and reduce costs. PTC has been at the forefront ofenabling companies to achieve their globalization initiatives by provid-ing its customers with an open, heterogeneous, secure collaborationenvironment through Arbortext Content Manager.

With Arbortext Content Manager, companies can securely harness the tal-ents and energy of the entire team–inside or outside their firewall. Throughits virtual workspace, Arbortext Content Manager, provides access toinformation at the right time, keeping the team aligned, on track, and mov-ing forward. This solution accelerates time–to-market by providing real-time visibility into current documents, parts, and plan information.Arbortext Content Manager, manages content developed using PTC’sother solutions, including Pro/ENGINEER, Arbortext Editor, andArbortext IsoDraw, enabling companies to optimize cross-enterprise activ-ities for the purposes of developing product information and technicalpublications. This seamless operation provides a powerful collaborationenvironment, while maintaining visibility and traceability of the documentcreation process as required by corporate governance initiatives.

PTC’s visualization software – ProductView – enables viewing and verifi-cation of MCAD, ECAD, and documentation regardless of the source system. ProductView provides access to this information in a ‘lightweight’format, and allows users to interrogate and mark-up viewables to sharewith others in the process. This capability facilitates collaboration duringthe process of developing technical publications.

“Collaborative solutions canreduce the product developmentcycle by as much as 40%.”

–Giga Information Group

“Collaborative developmentreduces data proliferation by 30%.”

–McKinsey

“Workforce inefficiencies related to publishing will costorganizations across the globe approximately $750 billion.”

–A.T. Kearney

• Business Process Automation – The capability to graphicallymodel a workflow-driven process, automatically trigger the start ofthe process based on specific circumstances, and monitor theprogress of the running process – and intervene, if necessary–delivers great value to the publications process, particularly forcomplex processes. Sophisticated publishing applications requireworkflows to guide the steps of reviewing, approving, and publishing,and have the scalability and flexibility to be defined for specificdocument components or for collection of components. Workflow-driven process automation enables automatic management ofheterogeneous documents consisting of multiple types of content.

• Dynamic Management of Multiple Types of Content – Technicalpublications incorporate multiple types of content such as text,interactive graphics and illustrations, links, multimedia objects, and MCAD and ECAD objects. In order to automate the publishingprocess, all content components must be managed dynamicallywithin the content management system. When you make a changeto one of your content components, you want all the content referencing this component to automatically update without manual intervention.

• Common Security Requirements – In order to ensure contentintegrity and compliance with regulatory requirements, documentcomponents must share common security requirements.Permissions and workflows must vary based on the version and lifecycle of the document, and content changes need to be trackedand traceable back to their source.

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Content Control and ManagementWhat would happen to your publications process if your core intel-lectual content were stored in many different locations and repos-itories, so that when individual components changed, you had totrack down all of them before publishing a document? Can youimagine what would happen if the service manual for a weaponssystem didn’t accurately reflect the current configuration. It wouldresult in chaos, liability, and an unacceptable safety risk. Contentcontrol and management are necessary to optimize the technicalpublishing process. There are several key capabilities you shouldlook for in your content management system:

• Support for Structured XML/SGML Content – Support forXML/SGML within a content management system can vary fromsimply recognizing XML/SGML as a different file type to providingconsiderable XML/SGML-specific capability such as: checkingXML/SGML documents to make sure they are valid; automaticallybursting documents into reusable components; assembling compo-nents into whole documents; and automatically handling all relatedfiles that together make up an XML/SGML compound document*.

• Lifecycle Management – Publications naturally go through variouslifecycle states such as “Work-In-Progress,” “In Review,” “Releasedand Available,” and “Obsolete.” Managing content through lifecyclestates enables companies to route information based on lifecyclestates and to give access to the right people so they can performlifecycle-specific tasks on that content.

*DTD or Schema and a stylesheet are needed in order to use a typical XML document.

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Configuration ManagementA critical requirement for automating the publishing process is config-uration management. Configuration management is the foundation forboth information reuse and dynamic assembly. Configuration manage-ment capabilities ensure that authors are working with the right versionof content. This results in higher productivity and quality. Keyconfiguration management capabilities include:

• Componentized Documents – Knowing which documents ownwhich components. This knowledge enables several valuable functions, such as preventing authors from deleting a componentthat one or more documents currently use, and performing “where-used” searches that list each document that uses a certaincomponent.

• Multi-level Version Control – Content must be controlled, not only at the document level, but also at the component level. Thesecapabilities are important for documenting product changes afterthe product release date, establishing effectivity of the change, andfor managing multiple localized versions of the same content. For example, companies need to be able to publish the same usermanual with differing sub-sections for cases where product optionsvary by country. Or, they need to publish a version of the manualthat represents a specific serial number, where content componentsdiffer based on the serial number or effectivity of a change.

• Renditions – In XML/SGML publishing applications, content existsboth in its source format of XML/SGML and in various publishedformats or “renditions” such as PDF and HTML. Content manage-ment systems vary in their support for managing the workflows anddistribution of renditions, so you must consider your requirementscarefully. Advanced content management systems enable configu-ration control of renditions, which is required for automaticallypublishing to multiple types of media.

Communicating Content – Publishing Technical DocumentsThere are several key technical requirements necessary for automatingthe process of assembling and communicating content.

• Automatic publishing to multiple types of media for multiple audiences. One of the primary benefits of XML/SGML publishing isthe capability to publish automatically to multiple types of mediafor multiple audiences. Stylesheets* are used to enable automationbecause they contain the instructions for formatting documents for each type of media. Automated publishing software applies astylesheet to content to produce a Web, print, PDF or other type of media output.

• Complex Formatting Capabilities. To produce documents automatically, you need a system that can manage complex formatting requirements. For example, you may want to generatecontent automatically, either by deriving it from your document toproduce a list of figures, or by extracting content from a database tocreate a parts catalog with part numbers and descriptions.

CONTROL Content and Processes, and CONFIGURE products and publications with Arbortext Content Manager

PTC’s content and process management software, provides a single sourceof information, while maintaining control at every component level, pre-serving component relationships and providing deep configuration man-agement capabilities.

Arbortext Content Manager supports geographically dispersed teams,while managing critical processes such as change/configuration manage-ment and release to publications. Arbortext Content Manager ability tomanage complex information assets enables organizations to streamlinetheir document and publishing processes, while ensuring that the correctinformation is continually updated and delivered to consumers. Authorsusing Arbortext can check documents into Arbortext Content Manager,which will burst the document into document components.

Once in Arbortext Content Manager, these document components are sub-ject to Arbortext Content Manager’s powerful configuration and workflowmanagement capabilities. These capabilities enable you to choose whetherto manage each component individually, or manage entire products anddocuments with a single workflow modeled after your organization’s busi-ness process. Arbortext Content Manager can effectively manage differentconfigurations of compound documents, including the latest configuration,latest at a specific lifecycle state, or a specific "baseline" configuration.PTC is unique among content management vendors in offering a platformarchitected with inherent knowledge and understanding of complex, asso-ciative CAD authoring tools. Arbortext Content Manager can dynamicallymanage multiple types of content, enabling Arbortext to automaticallyassemble and publish information. The solution allows you to automatical-ly publish information to multiple types of media, while enforcing commonsecurity requirements.

• Automatic Publishing of Complex Graphics and Illustrations.Business content often includes complex graphics and illustrationsthat facilitate understanding of the published content. You can simplify your audience’s understanding by providing rich, accurate 2D illustrations and 3D interactive illustrations fromwhich the reader can derive more value.

*A stylesheet is a document that contains instructions to specify the formatting and

display of XML-encoded documents, or to transform XML into another format.

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Arbortext Publishing Engine*

The power of the PTC Product Development System comes from its ability toautomate the publishing process. Automation of the publishing process notonly reduces the burden on authors, liberating them from the responsibilityof designing and formatting content, but also enables you to publish morefrequently to more types of audiences and to more types of media.

The Arbortext Publishing Engine is a server-based product that pulls XMLand SGML content from Arbortext Content Manager, assembles that contentfor different audiences, and automatically publishes the assembled contentin both print and electronic forms, all with high-quality layout and format-ting. Arbortext operates in a completely unattended mode, and is a keycomponent of PTC’s Product Development System, which allows you to:

• deliver more accurate, more timely, and more consistent content

• dynamically deliver publications that are tailored to the needs of each end user

• immediately produce updated publications across all your target media

• automatically publish on-demand to multiple types of media, including Web, print, PDF, Microsoft Word, HTML Help, and wireless devices

The Arbortext Publishing Engine provides a wealth of features that supportthe automation of page-oriented output, and that eliminates the need forauthors to manually format documents.

Arbortext IsoView

3D illustrations can greatly enhance a reader’s ability to understand themessage being communicated, and are expected to become widely usedover time. However, the majority of today's technical illustrations are two-dimensional. Therefore, companies need a tool that enables users to viewand interact both with 2D and 3D illustrations. Regardless of the balance of2D and 3D illustrations used in a document, the publishing process cannotdeliver the maximum value without a way to view and interact with theseillustrations.

Arbortext IsoView– the industry-leading global viewing technology – allowsyou to display and print high-quality vector graphics used in a variety ofpublications, such as interactive electronic manuals, IETMS, or mainte-nance instructions distributed via CD-ROM or Intra-/Internet. ArbortextIsoView offers a viewing environment for illustrations, and has for manyyears been the de facto standard viewer of CGM files in the defense andaerospace industries, and in numerous other manufacturing industries.Arbortext IsoView enables authors to embed interactive, 2D and 3D engi-neering graphics directly into the technical publication, while preservingassociativity with the original engineering design. This ensures that all ref-erenced publications will automatically update whenever engineeringdesigns change.

ProductView

Most manufacturers today have a plethora of tools for creating digital content. Yet, many who would benefit from access to this data (engineering,marketing, project management, purchasing) do not have it. Through itssuite of visualization tools, highlighted by ProductView, PTC enables every-one to have easy and interactive access to this information without the needfor the native authoring applications. With ProductView’s compact, yetaccurate 3D-viewable format, complex information can be quicklyaccessed to reduce rework and improve decision making.

COMMUNICATE Via Rich Publications Using Arbortext andProductView

*Arbortext Publishing Engine can be used with other content management systems as well as file systems.

MS Office,Photoshop, etc.

DELIVERABLE

DESCRIPTIONHOW TO

CONCEPT

TASK

EXAMPLE

XML DocBursting Rules

Windchill ProjectLink

Arbortext Content Manager

Arbortext Editor

Arbortext IsoDraw

ArbortextIsoView

Arbortext Publishing Engine

Pro/ENGINEER

Mathcad

Other Authoring Tools

CommunicateCollaborate, Control, ConfigureCreate

EngineeringSpeci f icat ions

Pr in t/PDF

Web/HTML

Handhelds

WirelessDevices

CD-ROM

USer/TrainingManuals

ManufacturingDocuments

RegulatoryDocuments

MaintenanceDocuments

MarketingMaterials

ProductCatalogs

Product Development SystemIntegral System for Managing Product Development and Technical Publications

A Process-Based Approach to Effective

Technical Orders

The PTC Product Development System (PDS) delivers the industry’s firstand only integral solution that enables companies to create the publications’ content, collaborate effectively, control and manage content and associated configurations, and automate the process ofcommunicating content to all relevant channels. The PDS can help youdramatically improve the quality of your information while you gainsignificant savings in time and costs. PTC lets you combine mechanical,electronic, and software design content, illustrations and images, text,and tabular data into rich, interactive documentation that automatical-ly updates when a component is changed. This solution addresses eachof the different steps of the publication process while ensuring highperformance and interoperability, providing an integrated view, andfully automating the publication process.

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Choosing the Right System Architecture – Critical Componentfor Automating Publication ProcessesAutomation can significantly reduce costs by streamlining and improv-ing the technical publications process. However, automation can suc-ceed only when all components of your publishing system arecompatible and reinforce each other. A poor system architecture willresult in difficult deployment, massive integration costs, and mixedtechnologies that limit future flexibility and reduce reliability. The rightsystem architecture 1) shares a common database schema, commonbusiness objects, and a common Web-based user interface, 2) deploysseamlessly across existing intranet and Internet infrastructures, and 3)integrates with other systems using standard protocols and integrationapproaches.

PDS: PTC Solution for Technical Publications

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Flexible System ArchitectureSome companies may choose to integrate what they consider to be thebest applications from multiple vendors to create a custom publishingsystem. Although this strategy provides a comprehensive footprint ofcapabilities, the resulting system usually requires high deployment andmaintenance costs. Those organizations will need highly technical ITteams with the skills necessary to reconcile a variety of issues: the dataand process models, conflicting technology architectures and imple-mentations, multiple databases, and asynchronous product upgradecycles. Upgrading any one application could break the fragile system,limiting the ability to add capabilities over time. The worst aspect of thisstrategy is that the integration and maintenance of the system becomesthe sole responsibility of the user instead of the vendors, and is a riskyproposition.

In order to minimize deployment costs and risk, and maximize ease ofadoption, PTC has designed an integral, Internet-based and fully inter-operable system. This system can be deployed incrementally and quick-ly, with low risk and low cost of ownership, for an immediate return oninvestment. However, the architecture can easily accommodate futureneeds – such as additional users, additional capabilities, and/or deepprocess integrations to other systems. The Product DevelopmentSystem enables you to realize the vision of a fully automated publica-tion process that’s concurrent and associative with product design. ThePDS is the only integral system for technical publications.

Integral - PTC’s technology is designed to work together as one cohesivesystem with no redundant, overlapping, or conflicting modules. The user experience is seamless across all applications.

Internet - PTC’s technology utilizes a Pure Internet infrastructure thatdeploys seamlessly across both the enterprise and the broader digitalproduct value chain.

Interoperable - While integral within the scope of product development,PTC’s technology is an open system that integrates easily with other enter-prise systems at the boundaries of product development.

PTC Global Services Ensures Organizations Realize the Maximum Value from their Dynamic Publishing InvestmentDeploying the right software is critical to automating the publishingprocess. But to truly realize the cost savings and time-to-market benefits from automation, customers need to ensure that everyone –from senior executives to end-users–adopts the change that comeswith new technology and improved processes. In an environment wherepeople are already accustomed to using desktop publishing tools, adoption can be a challenge.

At PTC, we recognize the importance of user adoption. Our GlobalServices team offers solutions that help you not only implement theProduct Development System, but also drive adoption of the system within your organization. After years of deploying new processes andtechnology across thousands of customer sites, our Global Servicesteam is able to anticipate the cultural and geographical adoption challenges you’ll face–and help you overcome them.

Each project begins with an examination of your current staffing,processes, and technology to determine the optimal deployment strat-egy and quickest path to value for your organization. We then guide youthrough each step of our standard Realized Value Methodology, whichincludes the steps required to facilitate adoption, including a uniquetraining approach called Precision Learning.

PTC Global Services helps you:

• Define your business and user requirements for your publishing needs

• Determine content reuse needs within your authoring environment and define an optimum strategy for bursting your publications

• Design the appropriate stylesheets to meet your publishing requirements

• Develop efficient workflows to streamline your authoring and publishing processes

• Define an appropriate data model to support your content

• Realize more value– faster

The overall goal will be to take the TO environment from a mainly paperenvironment to an Enhanced Technical Information ManagementSystem (ETIMS) and an Interactive Electronic Technical Manual System(IETMS) environment. The processes & technology will support bothenvironments with effort to move toward this ideal desired state. Thevalue to a more integrated paper & electronic TO environment will befaster updates to changes in the technical information, more accuratedata with less errors, and a more user friendly environment for the enduser. This conversion of the current TO environment to a more stream-lined operation is critical to the continued success of the Air Force.

The goal is to provide all combat relevant and accurate information ina quick & secure manner which can be accessed electronically via a com-puter screen interface and navigation tools, much like a web page. Byoptimizing the Air Force Technical Order environment, the USAF will seeincreased maintenance productivity, increased weapon system uptime,and significantly reduced costs and delays associated with printing,shipping and updating technical information.

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Conclusion

The Air Force is determined to continually improve the Technical Ordersystem for the aircraft maintainers, aircrew, depot & supply personnel,and the other members supporting the operation and maintenance ofa weapon system.

It is important to realize that replacing paper with electronic means willbe a committed journey. The Air Force will continually modify & devel-op the proper transition plan/roadmap for migrating from the currentpaper environment to the desired electronic end-state. Nevertheless,both environments will continually be of importance to the Air Forceuntil such dates where the electronic TO environment can costeffectively replace the entire current paper environment.

A process-based approach to effective technical orders will encompassseveral areas of importance, to include the following:

• Authoring/Editing: It makes sense that all technical orders shouldbe authored in an Air Force standardized, fully tagged, non-propri-etary format.

• Management of Content: The management of all TO content is key.Content includes: words, illustrations, bills of materials, productdata, product structure, & system lifecycle information.Sustainment of the technical orders will continually support thecurrent paper process, however the future intent will be to manageentirely by electronic means. A solid Change Management Processwill be important to the success and accuracy of the TO content.

• Distribution/Publishing: It would make sense for the TO data to beplaced in the repository/database for access by the field sites. Bymaintaining a configuration control process, changes may want tobe incorporated off-line, and then updated into the library oncecomplete. Automatic publishing will be beneficial after the changeis approved. Distribution of on-line and paper publishing will needto be addressed.

• User Experience: There will be a time when all data should beaccessed by the end user via an electronic tool. Authoring the dataonce and outputting to multiple mediums is the objective.

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Copyright © 2007, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) -- All rights reserved under copyright laws ofthe United States and other countries. Information described herein is based upon a single user experience.It is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construedas a guarantee or commitment by PTC.