CENTUM CS 1000/CS 3000 Electronic Document

SHIMIZU Hideto1

Printed bookbinding paper product manuals have been provided with Yokogawa's control systems represented by CENTUM CS so far.

In 1997 and 1998, new production control system CENTUM CS 1000 and integrated production control system CENTUM CS 3000 (hereinafter referred as CS 1000/CS3000) were released one after another, their operation and the engineering functions run on the open-architecture Windows NT.

In cooperation with the new product development, we achieved to provide users the documents and online manuals in electronic data for the first time. So that our company has broke away from the paper documentation era.

The file format and the electronics data are PDF (Portable Document Format) compliant, copyrighted by United States Adobe Systems which has been widely accepted as the standard electronic document format and the internet document format on Web. The needs for paper documents are also taken care of in our electronic document construction.

This article outlines the planning and production of the electronic documents for CENTUM CS 1000/CS 3000 functional online manuals.

Industrial Automation Systems Business Division

INTRODUCTION

The manuals of control systems such as a DCS provide a vast amount of information depending on their multi-functionality and functional integration. A conventional large-scale control system our company offers comes with more than 10,000 pages of paper documents. Manuals of those systems are a practical way to produce original information about the operational verifications of products in accordance with development specifications issued from the Product Development Department, and to edit it into book-bound information for each system function block, such as operation functions and control functions or information for each product software package.

However, the wide dispersion of information on CD-ROMs and electronic media on the Internet has disproved the concept that "a document equals paper." To meet the needs of the time, Yokogawa has planned and produced electronic media to replace manuals for control systems, and has developed control systems bound for the open and global markets. It has also completed both Japanese and English versions of electronic documents for the CS 1000 and CS 3000 series products. Electronic documents for the CS 1000/CS 3000 offer a vast amount of information not only via CD-ROM media, but also by online manuals included in the control system, that make full use of PDF properties, and paper documents that are excellent for quick reference.

BACKGROUND OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

 Figure 1 CS 1000/CS 3000 Document Map 

Yokogawa established a project team for the purpose of improving product manuals several years ago. The project team has mainly grappled with the following subjects.

Subjects regarding the systems between the Product Development Department and documentation personnel.

Subjects regarding documentation including the presentation media, authoring tools, and documentation cost.

Subjects regarding the quality of manuals, including the solicitation of user requests and improvement measures.

In the process of discussing these subjects, the project team started electronic document planning and electronic media became an essential component of document presentation media.

According to the needs of the time for electronic media, the widespread use of highly functional PCs, and the presence of international de facto standards such as PDF and HTML, it has become essential to plan and produce electronic-based documents. The following points were taken into account when planning electronic documents.

Comparing electronic and paper documents, and the proper use of them.

Selecting DTP (Desktop Publishing) tools and electronic tools.

Reducing the production period of documentation and producing concurrent Japanese/English versions.

Supporting online help (situation-dependent help)

Utilizing intranets and the Internet.

POLICY

Figure 2 Pictograms for Defining the Difference

between the CS 1000 and CS 3000 

CS 1000/CS 3000 electronic documents were planned and produced in accordance with the policy of supporting flexible maintenance for future changes in technology and situations, in addition to improving the problems associated with conventional documents. Especially when a document such as an online manual was planned, mutual cooperation between development department personnel and documentation personnel was indispensable, since the document requires an interface with the product system software.

This led to the policy described below.

Since the product documents are an important part of the product, the highest priority is given to synchronizing the documentation with the product release schedule. Also, the Japanese and English versions of the documents should be released at the same time.

The offering of product documents on CD-ROM in the same way the product system software is supplied. The documents are laid out so that they can be offered either on electronic media or on paper, with consideration for bookbinding.

The total size of the documents should be reduced.