Naveh Greenberg is the Director of US Defense Development for Data Conversion Laboratory and is an industry expert with S1000D conversion. He has a long history with structured content, XML, and other types of conversion projects.
What is S1000D?
S1000D is an international XML specification (part of the larger family of S-Series ILS specifications) for the procurement and production of technical publications (aerospace, defense, and capital-intensive equipment applications). S1000D helps to standardize data across aircraft manufacturers and programs to facilitate improved maintenance and logistics. This makes the reuse of data easier and more efficient.
OEMs and their suppliers that adopt the specification often benefit from decreased creation, update and management time for publications and IETMs. Most importantly, both parties can benefit from reduced publication costs.
The following list (in no particular order) comprises my top 10 reasons organizations should convert content to S1000D:
Reduces data sustainment costs as you're dealing with smaller and less repetitive chunks of data.
S1000D data can be published consistently across multiple vendors and publications.
Smaller Data Modules supports data reuse, increases accuracy, and provides quicker change cycles.
The S1000D Data Module Codes (DMC) provides detailed system breakdown and allows a machine to understand what the file is about simply by analyzing the DMC.
Tier level business rules allow consistency but also the freedom to develop project-specific business rules.
Provides the capability to create data repositories for part numbers, special tools, warnings, caution, and more. This means you can maintain this critical data in one location.
Improve the maintainer experience by using Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs), making content management easier while accessing data is quicker and more accurate.
Data can be exchanged between different departments, companies, and stakeholders, and successfully integrated using different common source database (CSDB) and IETMs.
Global standard that can be used across industries.
Very active standards group that makes sure the standard stays up to date.
More Resources
On-Demand Webinar: Automated Auditing of S1000D Aircraft Manuals
Related Case Study
It was the largest conversion ever to the S1000D standard, comprising hundreds of thousands of pages of the OEM manual of an aircraft that the Air Force uses. [read more]