An end to the paperwork chaos

The paperless information society has been with us for years, yet anyone needing information about a plant or machinery still has to root through heaps of paper documents. A retrieval system provides archived knowledge on demand.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF in Magdeburg and their colleagues at Enigma Information Retrieval GmbH have jointly developed a novel information management system that puts an end to the battle with ring binders: Plant Maintenance and Operation Services or PMO for short. Whether users are looking for a technical document, searching for the right spare part or checking maintenance cycles, PMO quickly puts the desired information at their fingertips by performing a full-text search of standardised electronic files: PMO scans 25,000 pages of documentation in about one second. Paper printouts have given way to electronic file formats.

The researchers have created a framework that forms the basis of the retrieval system and is filled with individual content for each customer. Once mechanics have located the required documents, they can take them straight to the factory floor on a PDA or even as a paper printout.

The researchers have demonstrated what PMO can do in several field tests. For instance, they used virtual models from the engineering phase to create a visually interactive 3D model of a flaking mill for documentation for the plant manufacturer Cimbria Sket GmbH.

Mechanics can take a virtual walkthrough of the model, request individual items of information by selecting them and view them clearly in a browser window. PMO enables technicians to learn to operate a machine without interrupting ongoing production - or even before the machine is set up in the factory.