The engineering, defence, manufacturing and aerospace industries deal with a number of documents ranging from quality records to technical drawings. Forms, emails, files, printouts, correspondence, personnel or client files, charts and other types of paper/electronic documents are among the most common documents used. These industries need reliable and smart document scanning, data and document conversion, and archiving solutions to streamline document management and facilitate access to information.
Both data entry and document conversion are important for any business. It helps in organizing valuable information, which plays an important role in the growth of business. It enables you to keep track of day to day activities of the business and also store data in usable formats. File management is made easy; in addition it brings valuable time, cost and storage space savings.
Document Conversion in the Manufacturing Sector
Manufacturing industries have thousands or even millions of pages of data that need to be accurate, organized and well-managed.Documents are the preliminary source for evidence-based verification and traceability. They enable the organization to demonstrate compliance with customer requirements and industry regulations. Manufacturing companies will have large quantities of legacy and unstructured content stored both in physical and electronic format. These are typically maintained in different locations – file cabinets, computers, bookshelves and so on.
Over the past decades there has been a major shift in the processing of documents. Printed documents changed to word processing and then to desktop publishing, storage methods also changed from magnetic tapes to floppy, CDs and now the cloud. Now documents can be repurposed, transmitted and published according to very specific needs. Structured documents help in satisfying all these needs with ease. Such documents will have fewer errors and assure improved data exchange between systems.
Digitizing Physical Documents and XML Conversion
Access to unorganized traditional file system can be very time-consuming and the files themselves may be in different formats. They need to be standardized for use by multiple uses across various platforms. Digitizing the physical forms involves converting the electronic files to structured content that conforms to a defined standard such as XML. XML conversion is advantageous because the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) standard is independent of storage technology as well as formatting that change often. XML allows representing text and other forms of content as tagged data, free of formatting restrictions and conforming to a predefined standardized structure.
Let us now consider the document management requirements of the aerospace industry and the challenges involved.
Aerospace Industry – Challenges
Organizations involved in manufacturing and operating in the aerospace industry need to maintain supporting documentation related to every stage from design, manufacture, in-service support, repair and overhaul to the prompt delivery and notification of all technical updates to commercial, freight and military aircraft operators. The documentation has to be regularly updated as well. The documents they handle include:
- Work instructions
- Flight manifest
- CAD drafting
- Blueprints and technical drawings
- Maintenance and technical records
- Aperture cards
- Operating policies
- Specifications
- HR and payroll files
- Project files
- Legal documents
- Documentation related to compliance
- Catalogs and part lists, and
- Files associated with contracts management, among many others.
The challenges they face are:
- Inconsistent source data, i.e., the information may be stored in different file formats such as binders, photos, blueprints, CAD, Word processing files, spreadsheets, PDFs, tables, graphics and so on, and across many locations and with multiple access points.
- Faulty information on account of data being input by writers with different writing techniques and skills; non-standard data; missing, superfluous or outdated information.
- Lack of storage space.
- Challenges involved in transmitting data using different platforms, applications and protocols.
- Maintaining information to comply with local, regional, national or global regulations that change frequently.
Handling the Challenges
Reliable document conversion enables maintaining structured content and thereby overcoming these challenges. The benefits of structured content are:
- Standardized data throughout the enterprise, higher and more consistent content.
- Makes searching for relevant content easy and efficient.
- Content management becomes less expensive and quicker.
Hiring a competent data entry and document conversion company is a viable option because such providers offer services particularly relevant to the aerospace industry. With a skilled and experienced workforce they provide timely, efficient scanning and digitization services for:
- All size drawings and related documentation
- Existing archives to reduce storage space, improve retrieval time and ensure smooth business functioning
- Personnel records
- Data sheets
- Build records
- Procurement documentation, and many others
With the right company, organizations in the aerospace sector can eliminate loads of filing cabinets, and enjoy updated, relevant content that is easily accessible to customers, employees and supply chain partners anywhere, any time and on any preferred device.
