Collaborate To Innovate

Experts tell manufacturers how to put their productivity on steriods Is it real, or is it just a buzzword? That’s one of the questions speakers at the up-coming IMET conference and exhibition will address for attendees trying to sort out trends in engineering and enterprise solutions. Here are a few highlights of what show goers can expect to learn: It was taking as long as a week to communicate design changes to manufacturing personnel at remote facilities through Nissan Research and Development’s document control room in Michigan. Nissan now uses Intranet Docs, from Digital Paper (booth 405), which allows drawing access in a Web browser. Documentation distribution takes minutes instead of days and can be printed on the nearest printer. And saved print sets can be e-mailed throughout the intranet. “With the Digital Paper solution, we could satisfy all 500 users in our facility,” says Nissan Operating Systems Su-pervisor James Tgiros. Tgiros also reports that Nissan’s shipping and receiving department uses Intranet Docs to verify parts on the loading dock and the Service, Quality Control, and Purchasing Departments are using it to improve technical knowledge and streamline work processes. e-Business in the Fast Lane Rolls-Royce Aero Engines switched from ordinary paper binders to intelligently epublished documentation for its worldwide customers. You can find out how at a Day in the Life Session, Wednesday, October 11, 2000 at 2:30 p.m. The problem that Rolls-Royce faced was trying to publish, organize and update 50,000 to 70,000 pages of text and graphics for each engine overhaul and maintenance manual. They went to e-content via the Enigma system. At the core of the new system was intelligent data that allowed full-text and topic-specific searching, hierarchical tables of contents and visual access navigation. With visual access navigation, a maintenance technician can click on specific parts of