Why The Need For High Quality Technical Documentation?

Documentation - The Interface Between User and Equipment

As systems and machine technologies have become increasingly complex, combined with the constant need to reduce operating costs and downtime, the requirement for user friendly and accurate support documentation has become essential to result in maximum efficiency and performance.

The User
The user is the reader of all Technical documentation. Different users should find easily the information they need to perform their task correctly. For example; a machine operator's task might be to shutdown the machine when an alarm is activated. To do this one need not have a detailed knowledge of the processor board function, just the procedure for shutting down the machine safely. However, the technician who has to rectify the fault may well need information on processor board functions.

Value Addittion
Technical documentation does not need to be 'whatever we can afford with the money left over from production'. It is a key component in a complete package.

Reliability and Efficiency Improvements
Research has revealed that Maximum number of break downs in high technology systems were caused by human error and the root cause of this human error was poor technical documentation.

Reduce Training and Service Costs
High quality; user-oriented documentation considerably reduces training and service costs, savings which are very often greater than the cost of the documentation. There will also be a significant user satisfaction benefit that cannot be measured.