It’s really that easy.

If you are looking to improve operational efficiency, appeal to the modern workforce, execute service checklists 3-5% faster and enable greater compliance and quality assurance over completed work instructions, AR Instruct is exactly what you need.

Want to see AR Instruct for yourself? Request a Demo today.

• Inconsistencies and Errors: Manual data collection can lead to outdated or incorrect information permeating through various documents.​
• Inefficiencies: Repetitive tasks and lack of automation slow down the documentation process, delaying product releases.​
• Scalability Issues: As products become more complex, managing documentation manually becomes increasingly untenable.

• Single Source of Truth: Centralize content to ensure consistency across all documentation.​
• Automated Updates: Link documentation directly to product data, allowing automatic updates when changes occur.​
• Multi-Channel Delivery: Publish content across various formats and platforms without redundant efforts

• Arbortext Editor: A powerful, XML-based authoring tool designed for creating structured content. It supports real-time validation, ensuring content conforms to required standards as it’s written. This not only improves accuracy but also reduces the need for post-creation corrections.
• Arbortext Styler: A stylesheet design application that lets users visually create and manage styles for multiple output formats. Publishing to PDF, HTML, or EPUB? Styler allows organizations to control formatting rules without needing to write code, greatly simplifying the publishing process.
• Arbortext Publishing Engine: The automation hub of the suite, this engine assembles, formats, and publishes content from Arbortext Editor using predefined styles and templates. It eliminates manual tasks and ensures consistent, repeatable publishing workflows across the enterprise.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the way companies design, manufacture, and service their products and manufacturing floors. ‘Service’ is one of the most notable areas to be impacted by this wave of technology and connected devices. Monitoring assets in the field and on the shop floor gives service technicians access to usage, error, and predictive analytics prior to a repair. As companies continue to adopt the IoT, more organizations are satisfying the prerequisites to easily deploy augmented reality for service.

With the convergence of the digital and physical worlds, manufacturers are using augmented reality as a tool to help improve their service capabilities. Augmented Reality (AR) can deliver the right information at the very moment that it’s needed on the manufacturing floor so that field service technicians and other factory workers can reduce errors, enhance efficiencies, and improve productivity. AR also allows for content to be presented in arguably the most contextual way possible. When accurate information is presented over real-world devices there is little room for error and misunderstanding.

If field service technicians aren’t available to be on-site for a critical situation, then technicians can remotely assist customers with the help of AR. Customers will be able to observe service manuals with interactive 3D animations to disassemble components or work on equipment with which they’re unfamiliar with. If the users need further help, then the experienced field service technician can walk users through instructions while steaming the user’s device view in real time.

Augmented Reality Barriers to Entry

Your service and parts information have to be accurate and up-to-date in order to fully benefit from an augmented reality investment. Making sure your organization has a reliable Service Lifecycle Management system in place is the first step to digital transformation. Without accurate information on parts and equipment, field service technicians could replace the wrong part or be confronted with an outdated, undocumented design.

In order to be labeled a “smart connected enterprise,” a company should have a strategy to connect all of their assets and data; this includes technical publications. Connected technical illustrations have the power to show the current status for every part and piece of equipment. For example, if a mechanic could see a 3D representation of a vehicle’s carburetor and view critical metrics it would help them understand the potential for repairs or future failure.

Your organization needs to be IoT ready – meaning that there needs to be a strategy in place to input sensors on products and equipment. The Internet of Things allows products and assets to send alerts to a maintenance system that assigns a field service technician to perform a repair. Without the sensors that relay information about the status of those parts, and accurate 3D representations, augmented reality devices would be useless because there would be no relevant or up-to-date information to leverage in the field.

The IoT and Augmented Reality are transforming service and enhancing the field service process. Check out EAC’s solutions to see how you can start using AR today.

Creating Ideal Translation Workflows for Optimum Results 

In Part Two of this post on coupling products for translation, we’ll discuss the specific steps that are required to implement complete translation projects – from managing technical content objects to managing costs and file collaboration. Refer to Part One for the overall solution design which shows the strengths of PTC’s Translation Manager, Windchill ProjectLink, workflow, reporting, and multi-lingual publishing and how they can be leveraged for translation.

The Process 

There are six process components to the overall translation solution. The process starts and ends with PTC’s Translation Manager. Windchill ProjectLink is nested in the middle of the process to facilitate the business project, cost collaboration, and file transfers with Translation Service Providers.

Step 1. Designate Objects for Translation 

The first step of the process begins with source content that is ready for translation to the target language(s). The content is stored in Product or Library folders in Windchill/Arbortext Content Manager. Here the project owner identifies complete document structures or document objects to be translated. A translation work package is created for the objects. The Translation Service Provider and target language(s) are designated with the creation of the translation package. Languages and Translation Service Providers are configurable.

At the completion of this step, the content is prepared for translation. It results with a collection of XML objects to be translated in a zip file. The source objects are set to the In Translation lifecycle state and the source content continues to be managed in relation to other content and states.

Step 2. Create Translation Project 

In the second step, ProjectLink is used to create a translation project that contains any business-related activity required for traceability. This activity includes deadlines and due dates, assign internal resources to the project, and expose the project to Translation Service Provider(s) or other external users outside your firewall. Any cost information, such as Requests for Quote and quotations received can also be stored under the project.

To start, the translation zip package is posted to the project. From here, the package is available for workflow and lifecycle activities as well as for collaboration with Translation Service Providers. If a process for approving translation costs is required, the cost approval workflow would be executed on the translation package stored in the project. Providers will be able to see the source content in order to estimate the level of effort and designated project participants can see cost approved or not approved activity.

Step 3. Route Objects for Translation 

This step in the workflow is for actual translation activities. Here Translation Service Providers can:

1. Checkout and Download the package when it is ready to translate and
2. Checkin and Upload the package when the work is complete.

This activity makes use of the translation package on ProjectLink so that collaboration with users outside your firewall can work on the project. The user interface is self-serving and provides traceability out-of-the-box. The zipped file is automatically iterated and historical versions are maintained on checkin so that everyone on the project is aware of the project status. Users can schedule alerts to immediately know when a critical threshold is reached. Therefore having the lifecycle states in ProjectLink enables real-time reporting on activities to show key performance indicators. Is the project on time? On budget?

Step 4. Route Translated Collateral for Approval 

The approval workflow activity in step four supports reviewing translated content delivered by the Translation Service Provider. Reviews may be performed by local native language review teams or it may include users that have other roles on the project. This activity uses the translation package on ProjectLink so that collaboration for users inside or outside of your firewall can continue to work on the translation. As a result of this workflow, updates can be made either by the Translation Service Provider or by home team members.

Once the translation is approved, the translation project can be concluded and all ProjectLink activities closed. Even so, an organization may still elect to store invoices and final cost information in the project for matrix reporting and future planning purposes.

Step 5. Store Objects in Translation Library 

After objects are translated, the final translation zip package is returned to the Translation Library where XML objects and images are stored. Here the translated target objects are bound to specific revisions and iterations of source objects for each language. For clarity on object status, objects are marked “Translated” or “Translated, Ready for Publish”.

When the objects are returned to Windchill/Arbortext Content Manager they can be published, updated, and iterated just like any other object. This is important since changes may be necessary to:

1. validate the markup;
2. facilitate aesthetics for publishing;
3. change product names, service marks or other marketing decisions;
4. change dates or other metadata.

Step 6. Route Assembled PDF Document for Approval 

In an environment with shared document components, status checks are necessary to verify that all objects included in the document are ready for publishing. This is a key element of the process since some objects may be In Translation, others may be at earlier iterations with no recent updates, or they could be universal images that require no translation. When all objects in the translated document are Ready for Publish, the published document is created, and routed for review and approval. This may be the first time that a translated document is being reviewed as a whole, thus it may be the first time that all content is reviewed relative to the content around it. At this point, it is expected that any changes made during this stage would be made by the home team for content stored securely behind the firewall.

The document review and approval process should be the same as your usual published document review process with different resources for languages. Documents can contain a single language or there may be multiple languages per document depending on the style guidelines for your organization.

Summary

For anyone that has been involved in the translation process, you can likely sympathize on how complex and challenging the tasks can be. By putting ProjectLink to work in your translation process, it does not have to be the case. With PTC’s Translation Manager and Windchill ProjectLink, workflow activities can be more transparent, helping to streamline the translation process across all documents and languages that need to be managed. If you have questions about how ProjectLink, Translation Manager, or multi-lingual publishing solutions can be integrated into your organization, be sure to contact the EAC Product Development team from the links below.

Learn More

Be sure to read Part One of this post to learn more about the solutions being deployed in the workflow being described.

Why Translation Workflows Matter

For companies who require product documentation to be localized for regional use, the sheer number of translated objects makes translation management very important to the business and organization as a whole. Suppose, for the purpose of simple math, that you are translating to 9 languages. One source language plus 9 target languages is 10 languages total. That means up to 90% of the content you are managing is translated. 10% of those objects could be global images that do not require translation, which would drop managed translated content to 80%. In global companies, it is fair to say that a large majority of the content you are responsible for is translated.

One might think that the translation process would simply involve handing off copies of documents to translation teams and then waiting a few days/weeks for the local language versions to arrive, but in reality this process is much more complex. Even when the material is developed in a sophisticated technical documentation tool like PTC Arbortext, it remains necessary to closely administer this activity to avoid risks associated with mandates that vary in different geographies, inefficient file tracking, incomplete reviews, and delays throughout the translation lifecycle.

This is the first of a two part series that discusses how to optimize translation processes by coupling two complementary tools, PTC Translation Manager and PTC ProjectLink. By combining these tools, organizations can overcome several obstacles that either slow workflow processes or increase costs during the translation of technical documentation. Part one outlines these tools and the processes they are designed to address. Part two details how more efficient translation workflows can be arranged in order to expand past administering translated XML objects, to include management of peripheral translation activities such as cost quotations, file sharing, collaboration with translation service providers, and quality assurance processes.

PTC’s Translation Manager

Translation Manager is a component of the PTC Windchill Service Information Manager. The Translation Manager prepares content for translation by identifying document components to be translated, creating work packages for translation or translation service providers, and setting the InTranslation lifecycle state. Key features include:

• Automate the creation of translation packages using workflows
• Restrict creation of translation packages to authorized translation users
• Generate a translation package from a Publication Structure or an Information Structure or
• include select document objects by assigning the proper translation attribute and life cycle state
• Automatically associate translated dynamic documents with their source objects
• Identify whether a translation exists for a source document or not
• Bind specific revisions and iterations of source objects to translated target objects
• Publish translated dynamic document structures.

Post-translation, the Translation Manager stores content by linking translated objects to source document objects in the translation library and sets the Translated lifecycle state.

Windchill ProjectLink

ProjectLink enables defining and executing project plans as well as associating project tasks with product deliverables. Through a self-administered virtual workspace, ProjectLink provides project management capabilities and access to accurate product information for resources inside or outside of your firewall.

In this solution, Windchill ProjectLink is featured to facilitate translation tasks outside your organization.

Windchill Workflow and Reporting Features

Workflow and Reporting are core features of the PTC product suite and are available in all Windchill-based products including Arbortext Content Manager, Service Information Manager,  and ProjectLink.

Workflow

Windchill Review and Approval Processes are used to automatically set the state of objects to the target lifecycle state and invite a list of Reviewers to provide comments.

Reporting

Windchill offers multiple tools to help decision-makers easily visualize trends, patterns and relationships using graphical and drill-down reports of key performance indicators. Simple and easy-to-use reporting and charting tools enable users to configure and save reports.

Publishing

PTC Arbortext Publishing Engine is a server-based system that assembles XML content and automatically publishes the content in both print and electronic forms, all with high-quality layout and formatting.

Stylesheets

Predefined stylesheets are used for layout and page composition. There can be different formatting options based on the language attribute assigned in the XML file.

XLIFF for Generated Text

Text that is generated by the stylesheet is translated once and stored for future use in an independent file. For example, text like the word “Table” is not translated with content. This is supported using XLIFF technologies. XLIFF is the XML Localization Interchange File Format which is used to store extracted text and carry the data from one step to another in the localization process.

Summary

As you can see, there are some pretty sophisticated tools available to support the translation process. The challenge is knowing how to leverage these tools to create a process that maximizes efficiency. Stay tuned, because we will be discussing just that in part two.