| Caterpillar Inc's New Authoring System | Table of contents | Indexes | A Topic Map for SGML 97 Proceedings | |||
| Bergström Peter |
| Lilja Frank |
Business benefits of an SGML and STEP integration |
A drama in one act |
| Peter Bergström |
| Frank Lilja , President Address: Enator Information Management AB, Ljungadalsgatan 2, Växjö (Sweden)S-351 80 Email: |
Biographical notice: |
| Frank Lilja is the president of Enator Information Management in Sweden. Mr Lilja has been working with the development, integration and maintenance of customer-specific information management solutions for several years.. To renew and make information-intensive processes more effective with the aid of leading edge tools and systems for the production, administration and presentation of information is the company's core idea. Enator Information Management operates as a systems integrator, and carries out assignments such as operational analyses, strategy selection, systems design and tools selection assignments. |
| The company participates during the implementation phase with project management, tools integration, application adaptation, methods, routines, standards and the building of prototypes. Documentation, training and support are also included. |
| Enator Information Management has many years of experience in system solutions based on Enator Information Management has many years of experience in system solutions based on SGML and related standards, and carries out information analyses, information structuring, DTD design and construction as well as SGML-based system implementation. |
Abstract: |
| The necessity of using standards when trying to preserve the value of information in a changing business environment is quite well-known today, but the use of several standards simultaneously and the integration of them has not been discussed too much, even within the CALS initiative. This drama in one act will put emphasis on the benefits of integrating standards rather than choosing one of them, which in several cases is essential for success. The differences between the product model standard STEP (ISO 10303) and SGML, and thereby the strengths of each, will be illustrated by a fictive business scenario that focuses on the reasons why an integration of standards is essential for success. |
Success with Standards |
| A fictive company, Global Ecological Transportation Of Physical Things Like Human Beings Inc., a manufacturer of the well-known Multi-Purpose Vehicle and the coming Super Multi Purpose Vehicle, is represented by its Technical Director, Mr Lilja (note: the name is an alias!). Mr Lilja will tell us some about the technical development of his company, and it will be clear that it is one of the leading companies regarding implementation of CALS in the civilian sector. |
| The company has recently successfully implemented STEP (ISO 10303) in its design and manufacturing departments, and STEP (ISO 10303) in its design and manufacturing departments, and SGML (ISO 8879) is being used successfully in the documentation department. Furthermore, the company is since a year also ISO 9000 certified. All in all, Mr Lilja is fully aware that information is a strategic resource, and he doesn't fear anything! |
The future |
| Global Ecological Transportation Of Physical Things Like Human Beings Inc. is now aiming at becoming one of the best agile companies in the world, which includes strategic investments in |
| The trend towards customer specific products is very clear in the Multi Purpose Vehicle sector, and information management is a key factor to success. |
| The technical development within the company has been astonishing in many ways, and it has been a very fortunate and successful time. However, sometimes the future goals seems almost impossible to achieve, even if one have good faith in CALS and standards. Not everything is sunshine in the company, as in any company, and recently some customers have had severe problems and the complaints are really a nuisance sometimes, indicating that the documentation is not updated or incomplete, and not corresponding to the real product. |
What's wrong? |
| Mr Lilja takes the opportunity to consult his EuroSTEP consultant since many years, Mr Bergström (note: this name is also an alias, of course). He was one of the consultants that preached Mr Lilja takes the opportunity to consult his EuroSTEP consultant since many years, Mr Bergström (note: this name is also an alias, of course). He was one of the consultants that preached SGML and CALS to Mr Lilja with such success a few years ago. |
| Mr Bergström, who has listened to the presentation, identifies the classical stove pipe problem. Well, not the classical problem, but a stove pipe problem consisting of standards this time! The solution lies in integrating standards and systems, he claims. |
| The discussion touches the difference between traditional product data and documentation, and questions the business benefits of integration of the two. The big potential lying in integration becomes visible through the product model concept, and the benefits gained from common, shared data. |
| Mr Lilja brings up the problem with new investments every time a consultant happens to knock on the door. There has been vast investments to become such far ahead in the CALSification, and there are no more money available for massive integration projects. |
The way out |
| Mr Bergström explains that the way out does not have to be very expensive. It is not dependent on the type of system you have, but on the way you use it. The way out can be explained in three bullets: |
| In order to understand the big picture, you have to know the big picture, so we analyse the business and the information used in the business. The information model is the map of your information, describing your "logical database". |
| When you model information in this way you do not separate product data from documentation. Instead you will see the many interactions and interconnections between them. You will also realise that you have to modularise the documentation in order to match the structure of the product and all other information. |
| And then, for the real implementation, you need to integrate your system, maybe starting slowly by sharing data through extractions and double storage, but finally becoming a tight integration which is conceived as one logical system by the users. And the cost for these three steps can really be adjusted to the required level of ambition. |
| But don't be fooled because the goal is such integrated systems, and fall into the traps offered by big "I can do everything"-system! Neither will PDF, HTML and XML offer you Eldorado at your fingertips! |
| In order to be flexible and agile for the future, you need to have systems that can change when the business requirements on IT changes. Large and tailored systems do not offer that flexibility, often you have to do business the way those systems wants you to do business! You need modularised system solutions, but highly integrated system modules. |
| And neither will PDF, HTML and XML make And neither will PDF, HTML and XML make SGML unnecessary, they are just output formats with less "intelligence" and suites very well for coexistence with SGML unnecessary, they are just output formats with less "intelligence" and suites very well for coexistence with SGML. VRML is similarly not a threat to STEP, but a complement for presenting geometry efficiently on the web. |
| Mr Bergström concludes that what's missing with the IT-environment at Global Ecological Transportation Of Physical Things Like Human Beings Inc. is the holistic view of the information. If information should become a strategic resource in its own right, then you have to take the "helicopter view" and draw the map over your information. And your system solutions must be based on standards implemented in system modules. |
| Caterpillar Inc's New Authoring System | Table of contents | Indexes | A Topic Map for SGML 97 Proceedings | |||