S1000D – Why Do We Need it and How Does it Work?
S1000D is A new buzz word in the technical publishing world. New word? Not exactly new, but surely it’s a new word in Indian Defence Technical Publishing segment.
What S1000D Means?
S1000D is an Interactive Electronic Technical Publishing IETP. Of course, it’s also called IETM too.
S1000d is not new but very few Indian companies, which support documentation of foreign Airline documentation are similar to S1000d word. But almost 90% of the people who do S1000d conversation do not know what S1000d is.
Few tools available in the market which are used to make XML files But they are not an IETM creating tool, Just XML conversion tools. After converting to XML, they send to foreign airlines company, where they foreign airline companies plug-in theses XML into their S1000d suits.
S1000D History In Brief
A few years back S1000d is mainly used in the Aerospace segment, because S1000d is basically governed by Steering Committee formed by ASD, Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA) ATA e-Business Program These organizations form the S1000D Council Hence, it’s more apt for the Aerospace industry.
Currently, Defense systems – including land, sea, and air products, civil aviation, Ship industry of the US have adopted these standards while making documentation.
Adoption of S1000D
Now Indian Defense system is also trying to adopt S1000D for their documentation activities. When Navy/IAF/Army wants S1000d IETM, it is implied that the navy has CSDB Suit /Local CSDB Server 20- 50 OEMs or Service providers will give S1000d data Modules of various systems and the Navy CSDB Local server will host them and monitor them and does the user management
If the navy does not have a CSDB suit then, still they can run IETM, but a standalone version where no user management will be done by IETM Viewer.(User management will be done by Navy CSDB Local server which hosts all the data modules of various OEMs)
Is S1000D suitable for Smaller Systems?
No. S1000D is not suitable for smaller systems. It’s very apt for the systems which have around 1 lakh pages of documentation and the project has just initiated the documentation.
One Of The Greatest Advantages Of S1000D Is In JSS 0852 IETM, first, documentation has to be done in JSS 251 format, in MS word then IETM activity starts. In S1000D, Separate documentation need not be done. Whatever we do in MS word will be done using s1000d Author software.
Once all the documentation is done, We can simply export them either as PDF or as IETM or XML files with Project manifest file so that these can be deployed in any other S1000d distribution servers/ CSDB studios of navy
Do We Need s1000d?
Well, to be honest, the answer is Yes and NO. It depends on how big is your System/equipment.
S1000d mostly suits to airline industry where every part has a unique number may it be AIRBUS, BOEING BUSINESS JETS, BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE, CESSNA AIRCRAFT. Parts and part numbers are the same.
How Does S1000D Work?
In S1000d documentation, every part is developed as a standalone module/document (data Module). While delivering a document, they compile all data modules and deliver. And all these companies have their own S1000d suit which costs in crores.
They maintain a centralized repository. They maintain their own software which takes care of publishing, document management.
In our context, it won’t suit our needs and purpose. To maintain s1000d, even Clients must have s 1000d CSDB Studio or Server, and all the s1000d publications supplied by various OEMs/ Vendors will sit in that CSDB Server
For that client has to share BREX, business rules to vendors, and guidelines to all vendors so that all the documents will sit properly in the client’s S1000d CSDB Server
This is needed when the system has around 2 lakhs of documents to share.And its commercially very costly solution. If, IETM costs you 20 lakhs then S1000d costs you 80 Lakhs.
If the system is very big, like documentation for the entire Ship /flight, and documentation has just been initiated, then S1000D is the best solution. Because One S1000d is made, then we can export PDFs and also IETM from the same source files.
The Major Advantage Of S1000D
let’s say each ship is built by has 100 OEMs and all 100 OEMs supply IETMS in different formats, then it will be difficult to maintain uniformity.
If all 100 vendors give navy s1000d IETMs then all the IETMs will almost in a similar format.
To achieve this, the Navy must have an S1000d CSDB server with them to host all OEMs received by various vendors.
If the Navy does not have an S1000d CSDB Server with them, then the purpose and benefits of S1000d cant be achieved
Why CODE AND PIXELS for S1000D?
For the past 7 years, we have been executing IETM projects for Army, Navy, and Air-force in JSG 0852 format.
In 2018, the first time we received an enquiry from a Dubai-based oil and gas firm. We have also come across the s1000d term in various Navy documentation meetings. we have then initiated R&D activities on S1000D Implementation and hired S1000d experts who have worked on various defense Aerospace projects.
we have interviewed 50 members who mentioned s1000d in their profiles. We picked them from LinkedIn. They don’t even know what s1000d is. They were told that the project was s1000d, and they blindly did data entry work on the conversion of word to XML.
We initially tried to develop software for S1000d. We later realised that S1000d is not just making Doc files into XML files. It has thousands of standards of XML tags as mentioned by S1000d documentation. We have searched for an organisation that is already an expert in delivering S1000d solutions. After almost 6 months of evolution, we have done a technical tie-up with one of the best s1000d service provider company. (US-based firm); We have executed projects in S1000d successfully.