Using Windchill Service Information Manager and Windchill Service Parts

Windchill Service Information Manager and Windchill Service Parts use a product-centric approach for the creation, management and delivery of the information critical for the safe and effective operation and servicing of a product. You must have Windchill PDMLink installed and add these Service Modules to use Windchill Service Information Manager and Windchill Service Parts.

Windchill Service Information Manager allows companies to organize their service content, specify the content applicability rules, create publications and automatically deliver the service information for every product configuration throughout the product lifecycle, allowing users to find accurate and relevant information.

The primary user roles for Windchill Service Information Manager are the technical authors or publication managers responsible for assessing and organizing the information going into a service publication. Authors and illustrators work with engineers to provide the content.

• The information structure is a product-centric hierarchy of the operating and service information representing all configurations of a product that are manufactured and sold to customers.

For more information, refer to About Information Structures.

• Publication structures define how information within the information structure, libraries, or external sources, must be organized for publishing various publications and outputs. Authors and publication managers use the publication structure to create a publication.

A publication structure enables you to assemble service content stored in Windchill or associated with an information structure into a document. When the content is assembled in a publication structure, you can publish a representation to PDF or a bundle. Publication structures can be nested.

For more information, refer to About Publication Structures.

The information structure provides a product centric view of the service information that captures how the product is serviced in the field and what service content must be provided. The information structure allows users to organize content into serviceable groups and sub-groups, providing a service-oriented view of all the content developed in support of a particular product.

Windchill Service Information Manager can organize various configurations of a product and variations of service information specific to each configuration. Using configuration management capabilities from Windchill, you can capture standard options and choices offered for products, assign the information to the service content, and then filter the information structure to show the service information relevant to a particular configuration of the product. If the Windchill Service Information Manager is deployed on the Windchill implementation that hosts the Engineering or Manufacturing product information, the product option information from the upstream product can be used or tailored to service needs.

Organizing information in a product-centric fashion makes impact analysis of a particular change on the service information easier. Leveraging Windchill change management and workflow capabilities ensures data accuracy and synchronicity with the source engineering product information. The change impact can be identified against the service content, and the implementation plan and task assignments can be created as part of the change management process. The change management process is controlled and automated using a workflow approach and maintains the history of change information as the service information matures.

Arbortext Content Delivery delivers service information from Windchill Service Information Manager to users in a comprehensive collection of electronic information. The service content can be accessed both online and offline, depending on how Windchill Service Information Manager is deployed. The information structure is directly published to the Windchill Service Information Manager, providing relevant, correct information for a given product configuration to service technicians and parts managers.

Windchill Service Parts enables the creation, management, and delivery of spare parts information. Leveraging engineering data ensures that accurate and relevant service information is delivered to service technicians and customers. Parts list authors and technical illustrators use Windchill Service Parts to transform engineering and manufacturing data into spare parts lists and illustrations for service. They can define parts information for every product configuration and automatically deliver parts lists information throughout the product lifecycle, allowing users to choose the right part for their product.

Windchill Service Parts is deployed on the foundation of Windchill Service Information Manager, adding spare parts management and parts list definitions. For more information, refer to About Windchill Service Parts.

Windchill Service Parts can reuse upstream Engineering Bill of Materials (eBOM) or Manufacturing Bill of Materials (mBOM), and transform the information into a service Bill of Materials (sBOM). The sBOM defines how the product is serviced, the spare parts units, and the service strategy for the product (including kits, replacements and alternate parts).

The transformation process maintains associativity between the sBOM and the eBOM or mBOM to ensure propagation of engineering changes. The sBOM allows services organization to create their own view of the product structure, while maintaining links back to the source product data. As engineering changes flow downstream, the impact on the service parts can be analyzed and changes can be incorporated. The transformation process also retains the visualization content from engineering parts.

Windchill Service Parts allows authors to create parts lists from more than one sBOM. Parts can be arranged in sequence to define a parts list for a given assembly. Embedded visualization services generate a graphical representation for the parts list based on the set of selected parts. The graphic can then serve as a source for creating a technical illustration.

The Windchill Service Parts editor also allows authors to define key attributes to be displayed on the parts catalog pages when they are published. Out of the box attributes include Part Name, Part Number, Item Number, Quantity and Remarks, and you can create your own attributes as well. After the parts list information is defined, it can be published using Windchill Visualization Services and Arbortext Publishing Engine in PDF or other electronic formats. The output can be stored in Windchill Service Parts, and remains associated with the source parts list.

The integration between Windchill Service Parts and Creo Illustrate enables technical illustrators to leverage the parts list information and the associated graphics to create 3D technical illustrations that are managed in Windchill Service Parts. This integration reuses the graphics generated during the parts list definition, and provides a starting point for creating a technical illustration. In addition, sequencing data (Item Numbers, Item Sequence Numbers) defined in Parts List can be accessed by Creo Illustrate to automatically generate callouts. This automation increases productivity and accuracy.

Multiple views of the graphic can be created and stored in the same parts list illustration. A 2D version of this illustration can also be created using the 3D view. Once complete, the illustration can be saved using Windchill Service Parts, and it is automatically linked to the source Parts List.

The completed Parts List information, along with the associated illustration, can be published to PDF for review. Both parts lists and the published PDF can be electronically routed to other team members for their comments and feedback. Windchill Service Parts uses Windchill workflow technology and leverages routing and promotion request capabilities for the review and approval of parts lists. Reviewers can access and comment the PDF version using Creo View. The feedback can be stored in Windchill Service Parts and accessed by authors who make suggested changes to parts lists.

With the source eBOM or mBOM information in the same Windchill system as Windchill Service Parts, changes in the upstream BOM is automatically flagged on the sBOM. The parts list author can identify the change, analyze the impact, and incorporate the change using sBOM reconciliation capabilities. The process ensures data accuracy and synchronicity with the source engineering product information. The change impact can be identified against parts lists or illustrations. The implementation plan and task assignments can be created as part of the change management process. The change management process is controlled and automated using a workflow approach and maintains the history of change information as the service information matures.

Parts Lists are collected and organized into a Parts Catalog, leveraging publication structure capabilities of Windchill Service Information Manager. Parts catalogs can be managed in the system along with the required applicability information, which supports product options. A parts catalog can be filtered for a particular configuration of the product based on the options information assigned.

Parts catalog publishing works with Windchill Visualization Services, Arbortext Styler, and Arbortext Publishing Engine to produce spare parts manuals with consistent styling in a variety of formats.

When published in bundle format for Arbortext Content Delivery, parts list items and illustration callouts are automatically linked for better comprehension of the parts information by the user.

Arbortext Content Delivery delivers service part information from Windchill Service Parts to users in a comprehensive collection of electronic information. Parts lists and illustrations can be accessed both online and offline, depending on how Windchill Service Information Manager is deployed. After finding a parts list, the user can go between graphics and parts list table entries, which have been automatically linked. The user can choose Required Parts from the parts list and add them to a selected parts list.Arbortext Content Delivery can support connections to other business systems (using customizations) such as a Shopping Cart or direct order system.