Initial Situation

An international mechanical engineering group markets approximately 140 products with countless variants, whose operating instructions are translated into 25 languages. For each of the many thousands of orders received annually, specific documentation was compiled, and the work steps were largely carried out manually. This was very time-consuming and required significant staff resources, and the specialists were constantly working at full capacity. There was no room for anything other than handling day-to-day business.

Definition of Objectives

The compilation of order-specific documentation is automated to make better use of valuable resources. Instead, specialists should focus on preparing technical documentation for the future—conceptually, methodologically, and technically.

Implementation

Laying the Groundwork

tecteam identified the aging system landscape, its inadequate connectivity, and missing or poorly coordinated processes as the causes of the high workload.

The following measures should help resolve the issue:

• Implementation of a powerful XML content management system.
• Development of a new content strategy.
• Specifying new processes and adapting existing ones.
• Integration of the content management system with the ERP system used to manage orders.

Develop Concepts

In parallel with the implementation of the content management system, tecteam worked with the client to develop the structural and content-related foundations for new operating instructions, a modularization concept, and a classification model. tecteam defined key rules for future workflows and, based on these guidelines, created the first set of operating instructions in the content management system.

Connecting Systems

Meanwhile, the content management system and the ERP system have been integrated. Thanks to this interface, all product data—which the product configurator also accesses—is now available in the content management system. The status of this data is updated daily, and all changes can be viewed.

Connecting Information

The modules from the content management system were linked to the corresponding product data from the ERP system. Each module thus knows which product and which component it belongs to, and each component knows the modules associated with it. At the same time, this information is written back to the content management system as metadata and is available there for a variety of purposes.

Customize Processes

The order processing workflow in the ERP system has also been updated. All information relevant to the automated generation of order-specific documentation is stored in the ERP system. Other order processing workflows remain unaffected.

The Situation Today

The Technical Writing department initiates a task that runs through the ERP system and collects the information relevant to the documentation. The job checks in the editorial system whether the prerequisites for compiling the documentation are met (structures, language, etc.). The required modules are compiled from a master structure into the specific operating instructions, the supplier documents, drawings, etc., are added, and the resulting documentation is stored in a shipping folder.

Automated order fulfillment is already in place for a significant number of orders, even though there are still some details that need to be worked out. The specialists are using the time they’ve saved to help build an information portal.