Document Management – not a Teamcenter best kept secret.
Thanks to everyone who stopped me after the presentation on Improving Communications with Technical Documentation. And a special thanks for providing the subject matter and title for this blog!
If you have a Teamcenter license you have access to document management. Document management in Teamcenter is much more than file sharing or library storage. When you think of all the documents that support your product lifecycle, from design concept, through manufacturing and launch efforts, you understand the need to get it right: meaning on-time, right format, correct information, etc. The document management solution from Teamcenter is the answer and you already have it. Whether test procedures and reports, marketing material, or user guides, product documentation is a necessary product component. It needs to be consistent with the product design and configuration, available on schedule, compliant with your company documentation guidelines, and often approved with appropriate signoffs and retained and managed.
Teamcenter can help. Document management in Teamcenter starts with administration setup. Your site administrator can define templates associated with each type of document that must be authored to ensure the right format is always followed. When you are in Teamcenter and click to create a document simply select the document type, Teamcenter will create the initial document using those templates. Boilerplate and other required logos or print stamps are available in the document based on projects, roles and document types. Not only that, but Teamcenter attribute exchange key Teamcenter part, BOM, or object information can be prepopulated into the form. If you change the information in the document or in Teamcenter, attributes update automatically.
Teamcenter Document Management – Template usage.Teamcenter provides all the control you need: check-in and check-out, version, and access rules. Your documents can be managed in context, by relating them to parts, products, and other documents. When change happens, and it will, the impact on your document can be quickly determined through the relationships or subscriptions you have defined. Once your document is ready for review you can submit to a workflow. States and approvals can be included as document content in tables, print stamps, distribution statements, etc.
Teamcenter can be configured to automatically create a PDF for simultaneous review by multiple users and manage their markups of your document. You can later review and disposition the markups against your document. When approved, Teamcenter can generate a final PDF with print stamps and watermarks.
The best part of document management with Teamcenter is you already have it. All you have to do is use it. Check out these and other advanced document and technical publications capabilities Teamcenter provides.
About our author:
Trish Laedtke is the Product Manager for Content and Document Management applications in Teamcenter. Her focus is on integrating tech pubs and supporting roles into the PLM environment, and taking advantage of the knowledge stored in Teamcenter to provide more accurate and effective documentation.
