GOODBYE PAPERWORK! DIGITAL ACCESS TO ALL DOCUMENTATION VIA ASSET ADMINISTRATION SHELLS

A single product can account for a mountain of documents. These include operating instructions, circuit diagrams, certificates, declarations of conformity and many more. The various documents need to be accessed by auditors and customs officers in particular. But keeping paper copies of documents is cumbersome for all those involved, particularly when they are needed in multiple languages. Depending on the system and/or the size of the machine, a very large number of documents may be required and it is not always possible to keep all of these on-site.

But the combination of digital nameplate (according to IEC 61406) and asset administration shells can resolve these issues. The asset administration shell contains digital copies of all available documents (according to VDI 2770), including all translations provided by the manufacturer. Scanning the digital nameplate provides direct and easy access to this information. The time-consuming process of searching through all the accompanying paper documents is now a thing of the past.

Another advantage of this solution is that thanks to VDI 2770, document management systems and IEP platforms (Internet Exchange Platforms according to the definition by the Digital Data Chain Consortium – DDCC) can be filled out automatically. Alongside the documents, additional metadata, the classification of documents, version numbers and keywords are supplied directly in PDF A format.