Customer comments: Integrated documentation at Unaxis

Munich - Trübbach (FL), 2004-03-18

History

Unaxis Balzers AG, a prominent manufacturer of complex vacuum systems for production of IT components, has always shown great interest in user-friendly documentation for their complex systems. In cooperation with CPTec (Munich) and ARTECH, the Displays division engaged in the project "Integrated Documentation" with the goal of developing a multifunctional documentation meeting the demands of the 21st century. After a successful introduction at Displays, other divisions have also adopted this documentation as standard now.

Method

Operating instructions are written in English according to the PBET (Performance Based Equipment Training) method. Older documents can be updated to the state of the art accordingly. The PBET method was introduced by the semiconductor industry - it is e.g. used at Intel - and may be compared with the Information Mapping Method (IMM). PBET is used for imparting knowledge, especially when training operating, maintenance and service personnel.

Products CPTec's SPCat/DocuCat software fully integrates the individual documents for a system (operating instructions, service manuals, OEM manuals, and the electronic spare parts catalog) under one common user interface! Related topics such as  repair / service instructions for a module, drawings, spare parts, schematic diagrams and functional descriptions are linked. The tool is multilingual and uses the master data of the company's SAP system.

Benefit

All the required information up to the e-mail order form is accessible with just a few clicks of your mouse. The entire system documentation is available to the service engineer on location; the MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) is reduced. It turns out that, with this tool, Unaxis has made a big step forward towards ease of operation and service and also towards customer satisfaction.

Some comments by involved Unaxis employees

Detlev Koch, Vice President Customer Support Displays Division "When I started the Integrated Documentation project in October 2002, I was convinced that we would design a good product. In January 2003, at a management meeting in Shanghai where I was invited to demonstrate the prototype, I knew that my expectations would even be surpassed. The reactions of our Asian customers were both confirmation and stimulation for implementing new features in the product:"

"We should ask all our suppliers to have such a documentation as standard" (Taiwanese customer) 

"When do you have the Internet version ready, and is it possible to do have an availability check and parts order through it?" (Japanese and Chinese customers)

"The first time you created a useful documentation" (Unaxis service engineer)

Thanks to the Integrated Documentation tool, both our customers and our engineers can handle our complex systems more easily. The Internet version, which will be realized in the next step, will lay the foundations for B2B."
 

Hans Peter Egli, Director Technical Documentation "In the integrated documentation, all the required individual documents such as operating instructions, spare parts catalog, OEM manuals and training manuals are combined in a useful manner. Related sections of all documents are linked with each other. The user is able find any required information quickly and conveniently. In order to create the integrated documentation for a system, a close collaboration between development, production, service, training and documentation personnel is essential. In the end, this results in a significant improvement of the document quality which, in turn, is a benefit for the end user."

Cornel Kaiser, Technical Documentation "The design of our integrated documentation allows us to edit the individual documents independently from each other. It is also possible to change individual documents later on and to integrate them again. The ease of use has been optimized by linking the documents together."

Robert Vogt, Unaxis Training "PBET ensures that each participant achieves a measurable qualification via SAP Manager Desktop.  Advantages: Undocumented and widespread knowledge is gathered and made available in ONE single documentation. Reduction to ONE resource. Procedures are written in an order which is most efficient for learning. Tasks in the maintenance plan, for example, can be performed easily by personnel trained by us. PBET implies hands-on training. This way we fulfill a popular request of our course participants."