Product Documentation using 3DVIA

Beckman Coulter, a manufacturer of sophisticated medical devices, understands how critical product assembly and documentation are to its business. Beckman used to create paper-based assembly instructions, but the creation and modification process was slow and cumbersome. The paper-based instructions were also very wordy and because Beckman has a diverse workforce, choosing the right words or translations took even more time in the creation of the instructions. Beckman needed to find a better way to create assembly instructions.

A project team led by Don Dorff, a project manager in PLM and software technology at Beckman, discovered a product called 3DVIA Composer. The company immediately realized that this tool could solve many of the problems being faced by paper-based documentation.

3DVIA Composer is a software tool that generates technical product deliverables, like product documentation, assembly and work instructions, technical illustrations, field service materials, animations and more, directly from a 3D CAD model.

The Beckman team had a couple things in mind right away; improve product assembly by reducing errors and reduce assembly time by “showing” the workforce how to do it virtually rather than using paper-based work instructions. Right away Beckman realized a huge reduction in words. Since the assembly instructions were being generated as animations, words and text were reduced by 80%. As a result, Beckman can assemble their products just about anywhere in the world; language localization isn’t the critical issue that it once was.

Another huge benefit was error reduction. When Beckman hired a new technical writer who would be using 3DVIA Composer, rather than just learn the tool, she asked to view the interactive 3DVIA assembly instructions and assemble the product herself. She assembled the product correctly, the first time with no previous experience.

Beckman also takes advantage of the 3DVIA API (application programming interface) to customize the 3DVIA Player to enable the creation of the DHF (device history file) during the assembly process. Each completed step is recorded and logged. At the end of the assembly, the records can be collected and catalogued with the product.

Better assembly throughput… with fewer words and errors… and regulatory compliance. Priceless!

Tags: 3DVIA Composer, 3DVIA Player, API, assembly instructions, field service, product assembly documentation, technical illustrations, work instructions