Many organizations don’t realize that they already own a Digital Media Publisher (DMP), nor what DMP can do for them. If you have Arbortext Publishing Engine, you have access to DMP.

If you have ever used the Help Center in Arbortext Editor or Windchill, you’ve used an instance of DMP (actually it is Digital Media Consumer (DMC), which is the application deployed for viewing the media image created by DMP).

Just the Facts

Arbortext Digital Media Publisher is a companion product to Arbortext Editor and Arbortext Publishing Engine. DMP gives you the tools you need to create a searchable media image from a set of documents that can be written to any digital media type such as a DVD or flash drive. You can run the resulting image (DMC) directly from the media, install it on your system, or deploy it over the Web.

Have it your way

The media image and the associated installation process can be highly customized to meet your individual delivery requirements.

Here’s the out-of-the-box home screen of the Arbortext Help Center:

And here’s an example of a home screen the from when I worked with The Raymond Corporation, for their service documentation:

Not only can the home screen be customized, but the functionality can also. In this example, when I clicked on iWAREHOUSE®; the table of contents expanded and the home screen now displays the iWAREHOUSE components.

The next step is selecting the component, which will display the technical documentation available:

Update a CD? Yes you can!

A unique feature of DMP is that it supports publishing updates to existing images, even DVD and CD-ROM! So you don’t need to issue a completely new CD when there is an update to your content. The update can be included with the existing content automatically when the user opens the DMC.

It doesn’t have to be a CD

The DMC output can take several forms:

• Install the image to a local disk or server and run it from there
• Create a DVD, CD, or save it to a Flash Drive
  • Run directly from the media (DMC bundles a web server and includes an embedded web browser for Windows)
  • Install from the media to your local computer
  • Create a web application (WAR file) for your website
  • Create an image ready to be used as an application’s online help system

And it doesn’t have to be HTML

DMP images can contain the following file types, in any combination:

• HTML
• Text
• XML
• PDF
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Other Microsoft Office documents
• Any file types that can be viewed in a browser, including those that require browser plug-ins.

Find what you are looking for, and hide the rest

DMP provides the capability of full-text search, even within PDF and Microsoft Office content.

If your content is profiled*, users can elect to view only the information that pertains to them.

* Profiling is a means to provide specific content for a selected audience. Profiling sections of documents (or even individual words) lets you designate that certain sections (or words) contain information targeted at a specific audience or contain information that only applies when a particular set of circumstances exists.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a hypothetical situation to paint the story ‘how real-time information and predictive analytics unlock value.’

To start, imagine a fully functioning assembly line with a robot, a pneumatic system, a series of conveyors, and a vision system.

Let’s pretend the supply station in the back is bringing in our raw materials. The robot is assembling those materials with precision. The resulting assemblies are then passed on to the quality station, and the vision system inspects each of those assemblies to ensure proper alignment of the parts.

This is a pretty generic operation, but it can show how unified real-time information and predictive analytics unlock value.

Now imagine yourself as a maintenance engineer, who wants to check the status of your asset pool.

Using software, such as ThingWorx Navigate by PTC for example, you launch a role-based maintenance application. All of a sudden you see a complete list of your assets with real-time performance stats and relevant alerts or notifications. You also have a complete list of all your outstanding maintenance work orders.

From here, you have the ability to drill into any of your assets, but you start with the quality station. You immediately see the key characteristics of the station.  You see that speed vibration and temperature are all operating within their specified range. You could also see notifications of any warnings, malfunctions, or potential future problems.

Next, you use your device to take a look at the pneumatic system.  The pneumatic system also looks fine. Both pressure and flow are operating within the specified range, and there are no outstanding maintenance tickets or work order notifications on your screen.

Now, let’s consider a situation where there was a leak in the pneumatic system.  Let’s say a loose fitting was releasing pressure, a fairly common problem in pneumatic systems. Now, rather than looking fine,  your device displays flow readings outside of the designated operating range. Furthermore, an alert has automatically been sent to notify you that a system has an error. The overall status indicator on your screen has now switched from green to orange – operational, but not optimal.

Your software solution’s machine learning is now predicting that this air leak, if not repaired, will result in a pneumatic gate failure in approximately 10 day’s time. The good news for you is the system has already issued you a maintenance work order to address the problem before asset failure and unplanned downtime.

This scenario is made possible by a system equipped with primary and secondary sensors, and a complete Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution that can turn raw machine data into valuable information.

For example, your pneumatic system has an airflow sensor, as well as a pressure sensor.  The conveyor systems are equipped with motor temperature sensors and vibration sensors.

In addition to the sensors, the rest of the assets on your line are controlled by typical PLCs, which are connected to software such as ThingWorx and Kepware.

You have also used your software to integrate manufacturing floor systems with real-time IT applications, asset maintenance tools, and ERP systems. This provides you with a real-time alignment of your IT and OT systems.

Now, all of your systems are throwing data out at a staggering 800 data points per second.

Your software’s machine learning then uses that real-time streaming data to establish a baseline of normal operating conditions. This way it can immediately connect and broadcast any anomalies that occur. It uses these anomalies, in conjunction with its prediction capabilities to notify you of future problems, just as in the case of the pneumatic failure.

Now that you have an understanding of what is happening under the hood, let’s take a look at how all this comes together to enable real-time operational intelligence.

Pretend you are a production manager. Using software like ThingWorx Navigate and Kepware you have complete visibility into all of your factory operations. You can see all of your work orders, lines, and all of their critical KPI’s.

On your device, you notice an orange status indicator on line one (that was created from the air leak earlier). Once that air leak has been repaired, everything returns back to normal, just as you would expect.

Let’s explore one more hypothetical situation. Consider yourself to be an operator. In this case, you have just been assigned a new order for a thousand units that need to be delivered and expedited for an end-of-day delivery.

You’re notified of the order and in this smart connected scenario you, as an operator have a single portal from which you can see and execute all of your work. Through a single pane of glass, you now have access to your business systems information and your operational data including the KPIs from your line.

On your device, you also have up-to-the-minute visibility of the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). You see real-time data measurements of your manufacturing operation’s availability, quality, and performance.

Let’s see how some of these metrics might change if we go ahead and speed up the line to accelerate the current order, in order to make room for that expedited order.

To do that you switch the line speed from level one to level two. What you see in seconds on your device is that line speed has increased, and your assemblies are still passing the quality check.

Within a couple of minutes and a few additional cycles, on your device, you see both your performance and OEE trending upwards.

As an operator, you now are assured that you are going to meet your end-of-the-day deadline.

Using these hypothetical situations, together we have painted a picture demonstrating how you can connect disparate assets from different vendors, to provide real-time information.

You’ve also seen how you can leverage role-based applications that combine business systems information and operational data to empower your workforce with real-time actionable intelligence.

By integrating machine-learning capabilities you brought a whole new level of predictive intelligence to your factory floor, identified problems, and resolved issues with minimal impact on operational performance.

This is exactly how real-time information and predictive analytics can unlock value for your organization.