Model solutions

To most people the main elements of a product lifecycle management (PLM) system are software to generate geometry supported by a data management application to keep track of all the files.

Yet many PLM vendors forget the importance of user and service manuals — the natural extension into product support. No product, from car stereos to aircraft carriers, can make it to market or be maintained within it without manuals of some kind.

Yet technical documentation such as user manuals is becoming of greater interest to industry. Complex products require that whole-life costs be defined and understood early on in the program. The cost of product support, enabled by technical documentation, needs to be analysed as early as possible. That analysis must influence design.

All the documentation needs to be created alongside the products it describes. And with increasing product variety, documents also need to be tailored to specific products or members of product families.