Brief Outline of IETM
IETM or Interactive electronic Technical Manual
as the name indicates, it is a Manual which is interactive and in the form of electronic/digital.
Then PDF file is also electronic/digital, will that be called IETM?
Yes, undoubtedly PDF is also IETM. It’s Level 2 IETM.
I need to give an example so that u can understand better about Levels. . Every one of us must have played digital games. In that, we need to cross various levels. The first level would be simple, the second little difficult, and 3rd level more challenging and 4th Level tough.
Question is, why this documentation is required?
Along with phone or vehicle or any household gadgets, we get a user manual because, in case we have any trouble while using, we can refer to the manual and resolve the issue, without connecting to OEM or service center as might not be available 24 X7.
Hence, these documents should be in simple language and easy to navigate, and easy to reach any point in few clicks.
The bigger the system/device the more pages are required and more variety of manuals are required. i.e. User manual, Operator manual, Maintainer manual, Spare list, and so on.
If some fault has occurred in the system, then the operator may need to refer to more than one manual and it is very difficult to refer to multiple hardcopies. Even it is not easy to refer to multiple PDFs and refer to the issue as there is no linkage between all PDFs.
The purpose of the Manual is to guide the operator. If the manual is more dynamic that will be easy for the operator to refer and resolve the issue.
Level 4 and to some extent Level 3 will be very handy and very fast. All the documents are converted to a database, hence searching and inter-document referring will become easier.
I.e. a user can search for a problem and easily reach that particular page in seconds and also can see all the related topics to that topic which is being displayed.
Simple is Level 1 and advanced is Level -4
| LEVEL 1 | Normally scanned document | Normal PDF file |
| LEVEL 2 | Basic | PDF file with indexing, internal links between pages |
| LEVEL 3 | Intermediate | HTML/XML based Software |
| LEVEL 4 | Advanced | HTML/XML based software with advanced navigation features |
Indian Defense wants all the equipment to be delivered along with IETMs since 2014.
Based on the complexity, Level 3 or Level 4 is asked in the RFQ document. Since 2018, mostly Level 4 is asked to deliver.
What is IETM is it a document similar to PDF?
- IETM Levels 3 and 4 are not any document like MS Word or PDF file.
- IETM is a combination of Software and database. All the manuals are converted to SQL database. Using IETM Viewer, the user can access the data i.e. manuals, drawings, images, etc.
- IETM has 3 modes. User mode where users can access the documents. Admin mode where Admin can create users and track the activities of users
- Super admin or Authoring tool, where all the manuals are converted to database using this authoring tool.
Standards :
IETMs are available in 2 standards
- INDIAN Defense Standard (JSG 0852:2001)
- European Aviation standard (S1000D)
INDIAN STANDARD :
Government of India, Ministry of defense has framed few standards, Joint service Guide 0852:2001 and reframed in 2007.
European Aviation standard : It is called S1000D, mainly used in the Aviation industry
If the RFQ or tender documents say it is IETM means, it’s Indian standard only. If the end-user wants S1000D, then specifically “S1000D IETM LEVEL -4” is mentioned.
What is the difference in both the standard?
Ultimately the purpose of both the standard is the same, easy accessibility to all the documents and key points in few clicks.
Indian Standard uses SQL Database and IETM Viewer to see the database. IETM Viewer has tools to navigate faster and most effectively.
IETM does not need any third-party software to run. OEM can edit using the authoring tool which is available in IETM software.
S1000d is very costly than the Indian standard.
Indian Standard is SQL based and HTML based and s1000d is XML based
Few companies convert Documents to XML and call them S1000D.
Simple XML is not an S1000D IETM. If the end-user /navy/shipowner does not have a CSDB studio then all these IETMs cannot be imported and made a single master IETM.
CSDB studio is very costly software and is mainly supplied by western counties. Indian version CSDBs is not compatible with original S1000d importing.
Call : 9849527706 or Mail : ( gopikrishna@codeandpixels ) for more details.
