IETM or Interactive Electronic Technical Manual is a web-based application required primarily by the Indian Defence forces to store and maintain all product technical literature at one location. The first usage of IETM’s were found by the US defence forces in 1970’s to standardize documentation process among all weapon systems. It is currently being implemented in armed and naval forces.
Technical literature in IETM is in XML / SGML / HTML format. The database is relational and it helps enable easy access to technical literature of any assembly, subassembly, LRU, part, or component within a complex defence system. ILXS is a vendor that supplies IETM application pan India from Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, and all major cities.Technical documentation plays a crucial role in maintenance and operation activities of the system. The main objective of IETM is to reduce Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) and Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF)
Product/system documentation for defence sector presently contains hard copy printing which complies to JSS documentation standards. These standards provide a guideline to generate and publish user handbooks and technical manuals for complex mechatronic systems. With the introduction of digitization in product design and development, the documentation field is also moving towards digitization. To cater to this requirement, an Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) application is required to convert the hardcopy-based documentation in digital format (XML or HTML). IETM is a web-based, standalone or server configured, application.
Level 1 IETM is a basic version of PDF document with a few links to Table of Contents.
Level 2 IETM is advanced version of Level 1 with PDF documents having multiple links to Figures, Tables, Index, Glossary etc.
Level 3 IETM is a browser based application. All PDF documents of a product are compiled in this application. The user has access to features like, manage users, print documents, create annotations and bookmarks etc.
Level 4 IETM is the most widely used IETM in Indian Navy and Indian Army projects. It is available in standalone / server based configuration. The technical literature is presented in an XML/SGML format. It has a relational database that eliminates data duplicacy and redundancy.
In this level the documentation is now integrated with expert systems that may influence the display of content. For example, the IETM system may aggregate data from a large number of users input, feed that to the expert system that analyzes it and then the result gets fed back to the user through the IETM system. An analogy might be Google search, where search results are improved based on analysis of large data sets of previous queries entered by users.
IETMs have to comply to strict defence standards to ensure quality, structure, and uniformity within the application. ILXS has ensured that all specification mentioned in the standards are complied to. The general standards required for preparation of IETM are:
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