Discrete Manufacturing
Service/Repair Manuals
Industrial tools, systems and machinery require a
great deal of documentation due to their inherent
complexity. Thick manuals are the norm for
Service/Repair, and sometimes for Installation. The
typical Service/Repair Manual is 1"-1.5" thick,
and many products ship with several of these thick
manuals. Manuals may be perfect bound or, more often,
drilled and inserted into a 3-ring binder. By printing
hefty manuals on lightweight paper (as light as 13# bond
or 33# offset), the manufacturer can reduce the thickness
of his manuals by 30% compared to printing them on 20#
bond. For his customer,
that means 30-40% less shelf space dedicated to storing
them. Customer satisfaction also increases since the same
manuals weigh less (35% - 45% less) and are easier to
handle.
For the manufacturer, printing Service/Repair Manuals
on demand means obsolete inventory is a thing of the
past. Since they are printed only when needed, Manuals
are always current: the customer's copy incorporates the
latest Engineering Change Orders, procedures and
nomenclature. Plus, lighter, thinner paper means reduced
shipping costs and smaller cartons. If the manufacturer
mails Manuals or Update pages as part of an annual
maintenance service, the postage savings can be
substantial.
If the equipment buyer enters into a contract with the
manufacturer for service, the manufacturer's technicians
may have to store multiple manuals for each of several
products in company-owned vans or trucks. The
manufacturer's own service technicians will enjoy the
advantages of having fewer manuals (since more pages can
go in each binder), or thinner manuals (each of which
takes up less space in the van). There is less for the
technician to lug from the van to the equipment location
inside the customer's facility and then back out when
he's done. And lighter manuals mean the technician can
carry more documentation so he can avoid unnecessary
trips and get the job done faster
Materials Management Forms
Carbonless forms (like Pick Lists) are an essential
element of Materials handling, such as Purchasing and
Distribution. However, standard operating procedures
often depend on multi-part forms that have more copies
(4, 5, or even 6 parts) than ordinary Xerox printers are
designed to support. Regular Xerox printers can produce
1, 2- and 3-part forms on 20# - 22# stock with the full
advantages of print-on-demand methodology, including the
elimination of wastage due to obsolete inventory. Yet all
forms with similar information must be modified and
updated as conditions change (whether product model
changes, vendor part changes, organizational changes,
etc.). Instead of eliminating those forms from on-demand
printing that require 4 or more plies, or re-engineering
processes to accommodate fewer copies, an XSIS Lightweight
paper printing system can be used to address the
requirement for long multi-part forms. By printing forms
on lighter weight carbonless sheets, the user gets what
he needs: perfectly clear writing even on the very
last copy, every time.
The Feed
Assurance Feature (FAF) ensures error-free
data and stock verification in the printing process, so
forms are always correct -- even if pre-collated sheets
get fed out of sequence. The customer does not incur the
waste from sets with misordered parts, nor the lost time
and labor from re-printing the out-of-order sets.
Parts Catalogs
Parts Catalogs tend to be thick, so a manufacturer can
make them far easier to store and cheaper to mail by
printing them on lightweight paper. And, of course,
printing them as needed means no more waste; no more
delays while waiting for the latest version to come back
from a commercial printer; and until then, no need to
apply clumsy and labor-intensive stickers to correct
errors.
Product Manuals and Equipment Guides
Manuals targeted at the operator or end-user of
industrial equipment are often printed on
8.5"x11" paper and perfect bound. This type of
manual is an ideal application for digital printers
because it's typically produced in very short print runs
(as short as "print-for-one"), and often
customized to reflect the exact feature set or
configuration of the purchased equipment.
Using the XSIS Large Format Printer
(4635-LFP), it is feasible to use one printer to produce
complete manuals with covers. The covers for
industrial product user manuals are typically black and
white but must be larger than 17", in order to allow
for a spine that is usually 0.5" - 1.0" across.
With the LFP model, the book block inside can be printed
1-up or 2-up, as desired, on standard bond while an
oversize cover can be printed on suitably heavy stock.
Assuming 250 pages (125 duplexed sheets) printed on 20#
bond, the book block will be about 0.5" thick. The
cover can be printed on 11"x18" cover stock or
bristol, which allows for the spine and 0.25" trim
on the lead edge. In fact, the cover can be printed on
paper that is as big as 12.5"x18.5" to allow
for trimming three sides and wider spines.
The entire manual can be printed efficiently in a
single job since the 4635-LFP (like all 4635s) supports
multiple high capacity feeders. Of course, both the
contents and the cover can be customized.
Parts Marking and Tracking Systems
Any large mechanical, electronic or electro-optical
system will involve many parts and assemblies. With so
many parts and manufacturing steps, there are ample
opportunities for human error to creep into the
production process. The problem with sheer volume is
exacerbated by the fact that parts and sub-assemblies are
often variants of a basic component, so they're hard to
differentiate visually. As a result, every company needs
to put in place systems to ensure that the right
configuration is built: that is, the correct components
are installed, all of the components are installed, and
no component is installed that is not required.
The limitations of barcodes are solved by using a
marking and tracking system based on Xerox DataGlyph
codes to identify groups or classes, and to uniquely
identify items within each class. XSIS can build a
customized system using DataGlyph codes that fully meets
your production needs. Like barcodes, DataGlyph codes can
be printed on adhesive labels and applied to components.
The difference is that DataGlyph codes can be printed in
various forms (not just long strips) and they take up far
less space for a given amount of information content, so
they're easier to position on small components or
whenever space is limited. Because they are information
dense, they can contain some or all of the same data
stored in the network database (such as a part's history)
so it is always available, on site, instantly to a
service technician. And it is still readable, even if the
DataGlyph code suffers some damage or defacing.
XSIS also has the technology to mark DataGlyph codes
directly on to the surface of your metal and plastic
parts
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