Technical writing, an industrial and efficient tool

The economic weight of documentation

Many companies are investing to reduce their production costs.

Documentation is part of the product (according to the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC), yet it does not receive the same attention – particularly in France. Producing documentation mobilizes significant (human) resources. Any increase in workload is directly dependent on recruitment and training.

The vast majority of employees have an office suite license. Worldwide, this market will be worth 25 billion USD by 2021 (according to a Statistica study). These tools are so much a part of the landscape that their use is rarely discussed. Few organizations have a precise idea of the costs involved.

This simple calculation gives an idea of the budget involved: time devoted to this activity per employee × number of employees × number of days worked × hourly rate.

The budget for a team of 3 people producing documents 4 h/day at €50/h is €130,200/year.

Documentation, the dark side of the product

Documentation is mandatory for commissioning or exporting equipment. It is sometimes a payment milestone. Dematerialization has reduced the time needed to exchange physical documents. Nevertheless, documentation remains a source of stress for organizations, with high financial stakes: refusing payment on the grounds of insufficient documentation is very easy. Carrying out a performance test on a device requires far more resources.

Structured writing brings together writing methods (minimalism), technologies (XML) and tools to produce all kinds of documents (notices, contracts, manuals...) more quickly and more reliably.

While the majority of documentation is produced using office, CAD or DTP tools, the main format in use is still the – pdf, not least because it is difficult to edit.

This implies changes to documentation formats during its life cycle, before the information is made available:

• PDF files are distributed for downloading from a website or made available in electronic document management (EDM) tools;

• html files are published on a website or tablet.

This article explains the existing mechanisms for effectively addressing these uses.

These mechanisms are...