me40321 - paul wallace - the use of qr codes for document management in safety-critical industries

7/31/2019 ME40321 - Paul Wallace - The Use of QR Codes for Document Management in Safety-Critical Industries

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Supervisor: Stephen Culley

Co-Supervisor: Hamish McAlpine

ME40321: PROJECT REPORT

THE USE OF QR CODES FOR

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT INSAFETY-CRITICAL INDUSTRIES

Paul Wallace

19/04/2011


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Department of Mechanical Engineering

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND DESIGN

FINAL YEAR MEng PROJECT REPORT

The Use of QR Codes for Document Management in Safety-critical Industries

Paul Wallace

19/04/2011

I certify thatI have read and understood the entry in the Student Handbook for the Department

of Mechanical Engineering on Cheating and Plagiarism and that all material in this assignment

is my own work, except where I have indicated with appropriate references. I agree that, in line

with Regulation 15.3(e), if requested I will submit an electronic copy of this work for submission

to a Plagiarism Detection Service for quality assurance purposes.

Authors signature: .

Supervisor: Prof. S.J. Culley

Assessor: Dr. H.C. McAlpine


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The Use of Barcodes for Document Management in Safety-Critical Industries

Paul Wallace -i- 19th April 2011

Report Document Contextual Information (Metadata)

Static QR Code, which contains the restricted document metadata set of: Description, Master Author,

Creation Date, Title, Subject, Classification/Type, Language, Format and Publisher.

Report Document Status Information

Dynamic QR Code, which displays information on

document version, approval status and historic

editing events.

Report Document Storage Information


document location, access rights, and archiving.

Report Document Reference Information


references contained within the report.


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Paul Wallace -ii- 19th April 2011

SUMMARY

Whilst systems for the management of electronic documents are commonplace in industry,

their integration with existing paper document management is often overlooked. This can

lead to many issues such as the loss of design rationale during annotation; the use of

documents which have been superseded since printing; and the inability to verify the context

of a printed resource. This project considers the application of Quick Response barcodes to

rapidly and reliably bridge the gap between a static paper document and these dynamic

electronic systems.

A set of concepts for revising existing document management processes are produced

following a review of popular document management software packages; interviews ofcurrent engineers; and an analysis of the literature concerning the cause of failures. The most

promising areas for the application of barcodes suggested include the storage of and access to

metadata, version control and referencing.

The methods for applying barcodes to these concepts are investigated through a period of

self-testing and reflection; structured testing of the barcodes and associated display and

scanning technologies; and a questionnaire concerning information importance and useful

features. The primary factors affecting barcode display size were found to be the resolution of

monitors and their production on inkjet printers. A set of guidelines are generated regarding

the minimum barcode size for reliable implementation with various hardware.

A final system for the management of an engineering report is then proposed, along with an

example systems architecture and interface, which are applied to this report document. A

method which can be adopted by industry for the deployment of a barcode-enabled

document management system is then suggested, with a set of supporting recommendations.

To read the barcodes throughout this report, an app

for Smartphones can be downloaded for free from:

http://www.i-nigma.mobi


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Paul Wallace -iii- 19th April 2011

CONTENTS

1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Issues with Document Management ..................... ...................... ..................... ...................... .......... 1

1.2 Barcodes and Associated Technology ..................... ...................... ..................... ...................... ....... 2

1.3 Aims and Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 3

1.4 Project Outline ........................................................................................................................................... 3

1.5 Report Contents and Structure........................................................................................................... 5

1.5.1 Summary of Literature Review ...................... ...................... ..................... ...................... .......... 5

1.5.2 Summary of Technology Review ................... ...................... ...................... ..................... .......... 5

1.5.3 Summary of Application Definition and Investigation..................... ..................... .......... 5

1.5.4 Summary of Application Method Development................................................................. 5

1.5.5 Summary of Overall Results and Integrated Approach Proposal ..................... .......... 5

1.5.6 Summary of Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 6

2 Literature Review .............................................................................................................................................. 7

2.1 Document Management in Engineering ..................... ...................... ..................... ...................... ... 7

2.2 Document Management Software ...................... ...................... ...................... ...................... ............. 7

2.3 Metadata ...................................................................................................................................................... 9

2.4 Software Design ........................................................................................................................................ 9

3 Technology Review ........................................................................................................................................ 11

3.1 Databases ................................................................................................................................................. 11

3.2 PDA and Smartphones ........................................................................................................................ 11

3.3 Alternative Technologies to Barcodes ..................... ...................... ..................... ...................... .... 12

3.4 Barcodes and Interpretation ............................................................................................................ 13

3.5 Quick Response (QR) Barcodes ....................................................................................................... 15

4 Investigation and Definition of Potential Barcode Applications ..................... ..................... ....... 17

4.1 Targeted Review of Literature and Failure Cases .................... ...................... ...................... ... 17

4.1.1 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 18

4.2 Document Management Software Package Analysis.............................................................. 18


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Paul Wallace -iv- 19th April 2011

4.2.1 Goals and Methodology ...................... ...................... ...................... ...................... ..................... 18

4.2.2 Results .............................................................................................................................................. 19

4.2.3 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 21

4.3 Engineer Interviews ............................................................................................................................. 21


4.3.2 Results and Discussion .............................................................................................................. 24

4.3.3 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 27

4.4 Potential Barcode Application Concepts .................... ...................... ...................... ..................... 28

4.4.1 Concept 1 - Review Annotation Capture ...................... ...................... ..................... ........... 29

4.4.2 Concept 2 - Existence and Archiving ...................... ...................... ..................... .................. 30

4.4.3 Concept 3 - Print Tracking ....................................................................................................... 31

4.4.4 Concept 4 - Dynamic Reference Storage ...................... ...................... ..................... ........... 32

4.4.5 Concept 5 - Version Verification............................................................................................ 33

4.4.6 Concept 6 - Process Control and Feedback ..................... ...................... ..................... ....... 34

4.4.7 Concept 7 - Metadata Access .................................................................................................. 35

5 Development of Methods for Applying Barcodes .................... ...................... ...................... .............. 36

5.1 Self-Testing of Concepts ..................................................................................................................... 36



5.1.3 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 44

5.2 Barcode Function Testing .................................................................................................................. 45



5.2.3 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 54

5.3 Information Importance and Usefulness Questionnaire .................................... .................. 55



5.3.3 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 61

6 Overall Results and Integrated Approach Proposal ................... ...................... ...................... .......... 63


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Paul Wallace -v- 19th April 2011

6.1 Proposed System Components ..................... ...................... ...................... ...................... ................. 63

6.2 Proposed Systems Architecture ................... ...................... ...................... ...................... ................. 64

6.3 Proposed Interface Design ................................................................................................................ 71

6.4 Proposed Deployment Method ..................... ...................... ...................... ...................... ................. 74

7 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................................... 75

7.1 Motivation For Project ........................................................................................................................ 75

7.2 Aims and Objectives ............................................................................................................................. 75

7.3 Methods and Main Findings.............................................................................................................. 76

7.4 Recommendations To Industry .................... ...................... ...................... ...................... ................. 78

8 Further Work .................................................................................................................................................... 80

9 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................ 81

10 References ..................................................................................................................................................... 82

11 Appendices ................................................................................................................................................... 87


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Paul Wallace -1- 19th April 2011

1 INTRODUCTIONAn article in Business Weekin 1975 entitled The Office of the Future suggested that there

would be a massive drive towards a paperless office within the coming years (anon, 1975).

Yet over three decades on and despite the advances in computing such as e-mail and word

processing along with the legal acceptance of digital signatures (BERR, 2002), paper

consumption in Europe has grown by 2.9% per annum over the last fifteen years

(Confederation of European Paper Industries, 2010).

Alternative technologies which replicate and enhance the affordances of paper are emerging

(Heikenfeld et al., 2011), but the Hype Cycle from Gartner, a research specialist in various

technologies, predicts that they will not be in mainstream adoption for between two and fiveyears (King, 2010). It is therefore necessary to accept the future role of paper in engineering,

and consider technologies and processes to bridge the gap between the printed physical

world and the rapidly-changing virtual world, i.e. we should work towards a future in which

paper and electronic document tools work in concert and organizational processes make

optimal use of both (Sellen and Harper, 2003).

1. 1 ISSUES WITH DOCUMENT MANAGEMENTThe most significant problem with paper documents is that they are a static record. This often

manifests itself through the invalidation of references when files are moved. A typical

strategy to deal with this is the use of a Document Management System (DMS), where

processes or technologies are employed to manage both paper and electronic documents.

Despite these systems, and often as a result of them, around 30% of engineers time is spent

accessing information. (Lowe et al.) By linking paper documents to electronic systems, their

use can be enhanced with the beneficial characteristics and functions available only to

electronic documents, such as: the storage of large amounts of information; widespread and

remote access; fast, exhaustive searching; flexible, systematic viewing and sorting; quick links

to related materials; and dynamically updating or modifying content.

A robust document management system is crucial within safety-critical industries, where the

failure of such systems can lead to injury or death (McGettrick et al., 2000). These industries

include, but are not limited to, the automotive, aeronautical, medical, petrochemical,

construction, nuclear and military sectors. By increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of

the paper or digital system, engineers will be able to focus on the safety-critical tasks.


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1. 3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVESThe aim of the project is to investigate the potential role of barcodes for the management and

augmentation of printed and electronic documents. The main objectives to achieve this are:

1. Explore the technologies and current methods used for barcodes and documentmanagement.

2. Produce a set of concepts for enhancing the current practices through the applicationof barcodes.

3. Prove and develop the concepts.4. Create a systems architecture and interface for the revised methods of document

management.

5. Analyse the findings and produce a set of recommendations for applying the processin industry.

1. 4 PROJECT OUTLINEA flowchart for the project outline is presented in Figure 1.


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FIGURE 1 FLOWCHART REPRESENTING PROJECT PROGRESSION

Outputs

Processes

Inputs

Preliminaryprojectinvestigation

Barcodeapplicationsbrainstorm

Literatureandtechnologyreview

Groupanalysisand

discussion

WHAT

Aimsandobjectives

Individualanalysisand

discussion

WHY

Currentpracticesandissues

HOW

Technologyanddataapplication

Engineerinterviews

Failurecasesinliterature

Self-testingandreflection

Barcodetechnologyappraisal

Engineerandacademicquestionnaire

WHAT,WHYandHOW

CONCLUSIONS

Useofbarcodesfordocumentmanagement

inindustry

AppendixI

Section2/3

Section4.3

Section4.1

Section1.3

Section4

Section5

Section7

Barcodeim

plementationguidelines

Section5.1.1

Section5.1.2

Section5.1.3

AppendixH

Propos

edinterfacedesigns

Section6.3

Furtherwork

Section8

Summaryanddevelopment

Proposedsystemsarchitecture

Section6.2

Metadata

importanceguidelines

Section5.3.3

Proposeddeploymentmethod

Section6.4

Proposedapplicationconcepts

Section4.4

Do

cumentmanagementsoftwarepackageanalysis

Section4.2


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1. 5 REPORT CONTENTS AND STRUCTUREThe contents and structure of each section will now be summarised.

1.5.1 SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEWThis section describes the pertinent research activity and literature relevant to this project so

as to justify the project undertaking and highlight the contribution which the project will

make. Topics reviewed are: document management in engineering; document management

software; metadata and software design.

1.5.2 SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY REVIEWThis section reviews the state of the art for the technologies considered in this report. It

summarises the technologies into essential information to provide a justification for the

selection and application throughout the project. Technologies reviewed are: databases;

PDAs and smartphones; alternative technologies; barcodes and interpretation; and Quick

Response barcodes.

1.5.3 SUMMARY OF APPLICATION DEFINITION AND INVESTIGATIONThis section investigates the underlying reasons for why improvements should be made to

existing document management practices. This is achieved through the review of popular

document management software packages; interviews of engineering professionals; and an

analysis of the literature concerning document management software and failures. A set of

application concepts are then generated.

1.5.4 SUMMARY OF APPLICATION METHOD DEVELOPMENTThis section considers methods for applying the proposed concepts, and explores the issues

associated with these through: a self-testing implementation of the concepts; structured

barcode and associated scanning and display technology testing; and the creation and

analysis of a questionnaire concerning the importance and usefulness of information.

1.5.5 SUMMARY OF OVERALL RESULTS AND INTEGRATED APPROACH PROPOSALThis section develops these concepts into a final set of system components, discusses their

application to this report document and suggests how they can be applied by providing an


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example systems architecture and interface design. It then demonstrates a deployment

process which describes how the methods used for generating this system can be

implemented.

1.5.6 SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONSThis section presents the motivation for the project and restates the aims and objectives. It

then discusses the methods used and main findings for each of the aims and objectives. A set

of recommendations to industry are then made.


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2 LITERATURE REVIEWThrough studying a variety of sources on the subject of document management, it is clear that

there is a great deal of activity in this area, including a number of projects which endeavour

to standardise and improve upon existing practices. This section extracts and describes the

pertinent research in the following topics: document management in engineering; document

management software; metadata and software design.

2. 1 DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERINGIn business, the importance of a manageable and auditable paper trail is highly important for

legal and regulatory compliance; for example it is highly desirable in industry to meet quality

and data security standards such as ISO 9001: 2008 (Quality Management Systems) and ISO

27001:2005 (Information Security). It is also very important for businesses to create and

sustain competitive advantage and effective and efficient retrieval facilities [are] an

important factor affecting worker productivity (Zantout and Marir, 1999). Therefore, it is

important to understand how engineers use and organise information (Lowe et al.).

The interest in this area is not just from academics, but those in industry wishing to apply the

suggestions from this work. The ability to re-use information is also the target of much

research. The Knowledge and Information Management Grand Challenge Project is a three

year, 5m programme of which the primary output is the development of a set of guiding

Principles of Engineering Information Management (McMahon et al., 2009). Preserving

information enables the use of knowledge discovery software which can aid decisions and

improve processes (Zieger and Lloyd, 2001).

2. 2 DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWAREThere are a number of available software packages for the management of information, many

of which can be described by generic marketing terms shown in Table 1. These categories will

often overlap or be a part of an integrated system. All of these software packages store the

information in some form of computerised database, and could therefore be classified as

records management applications with increased functionality (Wiggins, 2000).

When discussing the relationship between paper-based and digitally-stored aircraft

management software, Romanski (2003) stresses the importance that traceability to allartefacts [is] established during the certification of safety critical software. This is ultimately


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the goal of a well-structured management system. Work has also been carried out into web-

based document management systems (Balasubramaniuan and Bashian, 1998), which is of

particular significance as there is widespread interest in the idea of distributed systems

known as cloud computing.

TABLE 1 - CATEGORIES OF ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE PACKAGES

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) allows the

integration of management information both

internally and externally across an entire

organisation.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

allows the management of the interaction with

clients, customers and sales prospects.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) allows the

management of a business network providing

products and services.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) allows

information management, typically for

engineering companies, during the conception,

design, manufacture, service and disposal of a

product.

The benefits of digital document management systems described by Sellen and Harper

(2003) include:

Storing large amounts of information in a small space Widespread and remote access to information stores Fast, exhaustive searching of information stores Flexible, systematic viewing and sorting Quick links to related materials Dynamically updating or modifying content Support for different kinds of documents Controlling access until information is ready Consistent indexing of files Portability, joint viewing and markup Quick access to filesThe foremost features of document management systems suggested by Wiggins (2000)

are compared to assertions by Sprague (1995) and the recommendations of the

Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM, 2010) in Table 2.


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TABLE 2 PRIMARY FEATURES OF DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Wiggins Sprague AIIM

Operational use Work flow Indexing Revision and version

control

Operational needs Information content Individual items

Status reporting Access control Version control Retention management Disaster recovery

Check In / Check Out andLocking

Version Control Roll back Audit Trail Annotation and Stamps Summarisation Storage location Security and access control

2. 3 METADATAAccording to the National Information Standards Organisation (NISO) Metadata is structured

information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or

manage an information resource (NISO, 2004). This description suggests that metadata is a

supplementary entity, however a great deal of literature takes a more stern opinion on its

use. Darlington et al. (2008) argue that metadata is used to place a document, or object, into

some recognisable individuating context, and only then can it be identified as an

information object. It seems obvious then that anybody creating a document should include

metadata, however Bangay (2010) suggests that it is usually incomplete or contradicts the

nature of the document.

A number of large research projects focus on the importance of metadata structure, for

example the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI, 2010) and the National Institute of

Standards and Technology (NIST, 2010) guidelines, which contribute a schema for

application to metadata storage. Many of these schemata can be adapted to suit company

requirements. Metadata is of particular importance in document archiving and retrieval,

which is the focus of the PREMIS Data Dictionary for Metadata Preservation project (PREMIS,

2005).

2. 4 SOFTWARE DESIGNWith the design of any system, a systematic approach is required. According to Hong (2005),

the design of a software system should contain at least five basic elements:


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1. the objectives of the design,2. a description of the designed product,3. the rationale of the design,4. a plan of the production, and finally,5. the designated usage of the product.

A common way of representing this design process is the use of a set of notation described as

software or systems architecture, which involves the description of elements from which

systems are built, interactions among those elements, patterns that guide their composition,

and constraints on these patterns. (Shaw and Garlan, 1996)

There are many approaches to systems architecture modelling, however a traditional

distinction regarding modelling perspectives is between the structural, functional andbehavioural perspective of the system (Krogstie, 2007). To allow this, some authors suggest

the simplification of a system by considering it from various viewpoints (Shaw and Garlan,

1993), such as the The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF, 2009) and the

Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (ISO/IEC 10746-3: 1996).

To create these diagrams a standard modelling language should be used (Hong, 2005). The

Integrated DEFinition language (IDEF) is a long-established method used in engineering

system design and has been adapted for software systems architecture, however the

Universal Modelling Language (UML) is broadly accepted as the software industry standard

for this (Kim et al.).


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3 TECHNOLOGY REVIEWThis section reviews the state of the art for the technologies considered in this report. It

summarises the technologies into essential information to provide a justification for their

selection and application throughout the project. Technologies described are: databases;

PDAs and smartphones; alternative barcode technologies; barcode types and interpretation;

and Quick Response barcodes.

3. 1 DATABASESA database is a digital organisation of text, images and statistics. It is possible to interact with

a database using computer software known as a DataBase Management System (DBMS).

These provide access, storage, security and backup facilities to provide a convenient and

efficient method of utilising the data (Rob et al., 2008).

A relational database stores information logically rather than physically and so a query

language is used to provide an interface for storing and retrieving information from it.

Commonly used database management systems include MySQL, Filemaker, Microsoft Access

and Oracle (Rob et al., 2008).

3. 2 PDA AND SMARTPHONESA Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is a mobile electronic device for information management

and display. A smartphone is an application of this with the functions of a mobile phone

incorporated. Due to this subtle difference, throughout the report the terms PDA and

smartphone will be used interchangeably. Recently there has been exponential growth in the

adoption of PDAs and currently they make up 28% of the UK and US mobile phone market

(Nielsen, 2010). Common features of PDAs include:

Network and internet access and the internet via wireless WAN or Wi-Fi Web-browsing capabilities Touch-screen technology Built-in digital camera Up to 1Ghz processor speed and 500MB RAM


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By creating a software application (or app) the hardware can be utilised to perform a wide

variety of functions. Freely-available apps can be easily downloaded for reading the

information contained within the barcodes used throughout this report, such as i-Nigma.

http://www.i-nigma.com

A portable handheld device which can interact with centrally-stored or online resources has a

wealth of potential applications. Smartphones have been used in medical professions for

accessing drug databases (Groote and Doranski, 2004), for improving educational practices

(Wishart et al., 2007) and for aiding people with disabilities (Tekin and Coughlan, 2010).

Their use for document management has not been extensively researched.

3. 3 ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES TO BARCODESOne area of notable research is in the application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

tags to industry. An RFID tag contains a transponder, which emits encoded information when

passed within the interrogation zone of a receiver. The ability to store high volumes of data

has facilitated their application in the tracking of automotive assembly lines, pharmaceutical

distribution, and publishing and library book loans (Hamano, 2010). The shortfall of RFID

tags is that the receivers are not currently installed in a mass-market products such as PDAs,

however progression is being made towards their integration in Japan and the UK (Hori and

Matsumoto, 2004). Although the cost of RFID tag production is low, barcodes can be printed

or displayed for free. Barcodes can also be read from monitors and paper, which RFID tags

cannot.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a technique used for converting printed text and

handwriting into a machine-readable text format. It is widely used in the electronic

conversion of books, however even from an excellent quality original studies have shown

only 99% accuracy for printed text (Feng and Manmatha, 2010; Holley, 2009) and 90%

accuracy for handwritten text (Burd, 2011). The benefit of barcodes over OCR is that a

greater quantity of information can be displayed in the same area as printed text with

superior reliability.

An alternative approach to linking printed documents to electronic resources is to remove

the paper resources altogether. Current portable documente-readers such as the Kindle

(Amazon, 2011) allow the display of books and documents in electronic format, but these


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technologies do not yet feature the interactive affordances of paper, such as being thin, light

and flexible (Sellen and Harper, 2003). There is a great deal of research into alternative e-

paper, which is flexible and can display moving images in full colour, but these technologies

will not be in mainstream use for many years (Heikenfeld et al., 2011).

3. 4 BARCODES AND INTERPRETATIONA barcode converts information into an image with areas of high and low reflective property

which can be read using an optical scanner. The original information can be retrieved using

software algorithms. A number of different barcode types exist, each with their own

encryption algorithms, the most prevalent of these are demonstrated in Table 3. The

datamatrix barcode type has seen extensive use in industry, for example the labelling of the

UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) paper driving licenses (Dept. for Transport,

2010).

The main limitation of barcodes is the requirement for a line-of-sight in reading and the

environmental variability in their application. The justification for the exploration of QR

barcodes in this project are that they have:

over twice the storage capacity of all other barcodes, superior error checking capabilities within the encryption algorithms, a small printout size relative to their content, a high speed scanning and interpretation process.Specific barcode scanners are available and in widespread use in industry. An example of this

is the Honeywell MS7580 Genesis shown in Figure 2. This particular model can read multiple

barcode types and input the embedded information to a PC via a USB connection.

Image taken from http://www.honeywell.com

FIGURE 2 HONEYWELL MS7580GENESIS SPECIFIC BARCODE SCANNER


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TABLE 3 COMPARISON OF BARCODE TYPES

Summarised from Anon, 2011

Example Name DeveloperMaximum

Storage CapacityUses

UniversalProduct Code

UPC-A

barcode

12 characters

(numeric)

Library bookreferencing

Retail industry

point-of-sale.

Data MatrixRVSI Acuity

CiMatrix

2,335 characters

(alphanumeric)

DVLA driver data

Parcel Delivery

tracking

Pharmaceutical

Industry labelling

Space Shuttle part

numbering

Aztec Code Honeywell3,067 characters

(alphanumeric)

Healthcare and

Pharmaceutical

Industry labelling

High Capacity

Colour

Barcode

Microsoft3,500 characters

(alphanumeric)

Quick

Response

(QR) Code

Denso Wave

4,296 characters

(alphanumeric)

or

7,089 characters

(numeric)

Google adverts

University of Bath

coursework

submission

MaxiCode UPS93 characters

(alphanumeric)

UPS Parcel Delivery

Tracking

Shotcode

High Energy

Magic

(Cambridge

University)

49 characters Online marketing

CodaBlockSymbol

Technologies

1,156 characters

(alphanumeric)


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3. 5 QUICK RESPONSE (QR) BARCODESInformation which is required for the interpretation of this report is extracted from the

Denso Wave website (Denso Wave, 2011) and summarised now.

The QR barcode was developed by Denso Wave in 1994. The use of QR barcode is free of any license as the patent rights are not exercised. It is clearly defined and published as a Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS X 0510) and

ISO international standard (ISO/IEC18004).

It features an Error Correction Capability (ECC) for dirt and damage in four categoriesL (7%), M(15%), Q(25%) and H(30%) .

It can be read from any angle. A Secure QR (SQR) format exists with data encryption capabilities. Data can be encoded in numeric, alphanumeric, binary and kanji formats.

The physical features of the barcode are now described and supplemented by Figure 3.

Image taken from http://www.keyence.com

FIGURE 3 QR BARCODE FEATURES

A module is a single data cell which has a binary representation. A white margin equivalent to 4 modules is required around the barcode. There are 40 versions which indicates the number of modules on each side. This

ranges from Version 1 (21 21 modules) up to Version 40 (177 177 modules).

The timing and position detection patterns are used to determine the barcodeorientation for scanning.

The alignment pattern is used to stitch together multiple barcodes for high storagecapacity.

The format information signifies the error correction rate used.
http://www.keyence.com/barcode/technology/barcode_2d_qr_code.phphttp://www.keyence.com/barcode/technology/barcode_2d_qr_code.php


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There are a many free scripts written in various programming languages for encoding

information in a QR Code.

A comprehensive barcode generation utility is available from:

http://keremerkan.net/qr-code-and-2d-code-generator/

A free PHP script for generating and modifying PDF files is available from:

http://www.fpdf.org/

Throughout the rest of the report it can be assumed that barcode refers to a QR Code.

Note: During the progression of the project, a new version of the QR barcode has

been released, iQR, with specific application for the automotive and aeronautical

industries. Compared to QR barcodes, it features 80% higher data capacity, is

30% smaller and has up to 50% error correction. It also offers the arrangement

of the modules in a rectangular matrix format (Smolski, 2011).
http://www.fpdf.org/http://www.fpdf.org/


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4 INVESTIGATION AND DEFINITION OF POTENTIAL BARCODEAPPLICATIONS

This section investigates how improvements should be made to existing document

management practices and the underlying reasons for doing so. This is achieved through the

review of popular document management software packages, interviews of current engineers

and an analysis of the literature concerning document management software and failures. A

set of application concepts are then generated.

4. 1 TARGETED REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND FAILURE CASESThis section considers cases in the literature which may be useful in determining the

rationale behind effective document management systems. The literature which was

considered is shown in Table 4 and the full discussion is available in Appendix A.

TABLE 4 DETAILS OF TARGETED LITERATURE

Identifier Author Work Industry

Literature

1

Fisher and

Kingma, 2001Review of failure cases

Aeronautical and

Aerospace

Literature

2

Goulielmos and

Tzannatos, 1997Review of accident statistics Shipping

Literature

3 Zieger, 2001

Review of an existing knowledge

management system and document

management system

Aeronautical

Literature

4Parnas, 2009 Review of system development practice Software Engineering

Literature

5

Kajko-Mattsson,

2005

Review of software documentationRailway, Aeronautical

and Automotive

Literature

6

Scott and OMalley,

2002Review of standards

Safety lifecycle

management

Literature

7Keraron, 2009 Study of annotation use and storage Aeronautical and Gas

Literature

8AIIM, 2009 Guidelines

Information

Management Systems

Literature

9Hales, 2011 Failure Case Investigation Steel Manufacture


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4.1.1 OVERVIEWAfter reviewing the literature described in Table 4, a number of general observations will

now be made.

To create a useful document management system it is important to consider not justthe information which is stored, but the way in which it can be displayed to the user.

Three factors drive the design and implementation of a document managementsystem: Information overload, display of data and timeliness.

It is useful to store and share knowledge and, in particular, design rationale. There is a high importance of clear linking of documents and in particular access to

documentation which is reliable, i.e. up-to-date and comprehensive.

It is important to maintain a manageable and auditable paper trail. Indexing is crucial to the management of documents. Concise text should be used for accuracy in data-based decisions, whereas graphics

should be used for a fast response time in process-based decisions.

Current standards on data control (IEC 61508) and safety lifecycle requirements(ANSI/ISA S84.01) are not detailed enough concerning the design of management

systems and user interaction with them.

4. 2 DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE PACKAGE ANALYSISThis section will focus on the methods for document management within a selection of

software packages used in industry.

4.2.1 GOALS AND METHODOLOGYThe primary goal of this research is to explore the functions of a selection of document

management software packages and extract the salient features and methods which they use

to achieve these. The focus of this project is engineering-specific documentation, and since

PLM software is the most appropriate for this it will be expanded further.

The four most popular PLM software packages were selected for review. No access to the

programs will be used other than the published data from the developer s website. In

addition to the generic PLM software, two specific document management software packages

were also selected and investigated. The six software packages are shown in Table 5. The

primary considerations of the review are document storage and access, and metadatasupport.


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TABLE 5 DETAILS OF SOFTWARE PACKAGES

Developer Software Software Category Further Information

PTC Windchill

PLM

Siemens Teamcenter

Dassault Systmes Enovia

Open Source Aras PLM

SAP PLM

Open Source Leto DMS

Specific DMS

Open Source OpenDocMan

4.2.2 RESULTSA summary of the findings is presented in Table 6.


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TABLE 6 SUMMARISED COMPARISON OF SOFTWARE PACKAGES

Developer SoftwareClient

FocusCommon Features for Document Management Access Control Storage of Documents Metadata Support Database Support

PTC WindchillMedium-

large Homepage providing dashboard analytics Automated report generation of document activity Modular and configurable user interface Workflow control of engineering changes Interface and parts driven by Bill of Materials (BOM)

structure

Specific modules for Computer Aided Design (CAD)components, assemblies and drawings and Electronic

Design Automation (EDA) integration

Management of project progression through stage-gate or phase-gate analysis

Quality compliance for document storage and access. Part Production Approval Process ( PPAP)

Comprehensive user management and access

restriction with differentiation between

departments, projects, and employment roles.

Files are automatically

renamed with a unique

identifier.

Versions stored and

organised within a server

database.

Many software-specific

metadata elements.

Any additional custom

metadata fields can be

applied to file records.

Oracle, Microsoft SQL

Server 2005

Siemens TeamcenterMedium-

large

Oracle Database 11g,

Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Dassault

SystmesEnovia

Medium-

large

IBM DB2 Universal

Database, Oracle, Microsoft

SQL Server 2008

Open Source Aras PLMSmall-

mediumMicrosoft SQL Server 2008

SAP PLMMedium-

large

IBM DB2 Universal

Database, Oracle, Microsoft

SQL Server 2008

Open Source Leto DMSSmall-

medium

PHP-driven with web-based interface Interface and parts driven by folder structure Quality compliance for document storage and

access.

Files listed through tables of contents, indexes Full-text searches and sort features Expiration date for documents Online editing of files Multiples file types supported but no linking to

CAD programs

Check in/out and lockdown Basic document change tracking through user

comment and storage of previous versions

User management and access restriction with

three user security levels: Admin, Manager and

User.

Files are automatically

renamed with a unique

identifier.

Versions stored and

organised within a server

folder structure

Many software-specific

metadata elements.

Additional custom

metadata fields are not

supported.

MySQL

(compatibility through

ADOdb)Open Source OpenDocMan

Small-

medium


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4.2.3 OVERVIEWA set of overall observations can be made about software packages for document

management:

Documents are renamed or appended with a unique identifier. The original filenames are stored. Documents are stored in a database for large systems and in a traditional folder

structure for smaller systems.

All metadata is stored in a database so that it can be queried. Collaborative working for specific document management software is restricted to

review and approval processes.

None of the software packages have paper document management routines.

4. 3 ENGINEER INTERVIEWSThis section describes a method and results for analysing the document management

procedures of engineering companies for both electronic and printed documents. It attempts

to determine the actual methods used in industry and highlight potential breaks in the

process.

A review of document management practices within large enterprise systems has been

undertaken in the Document Management Software review, however the findings are only

applicable to model companies. An engineering company must often adapt their established

working methods to fulfil the unique requirements of a particular project i.e. some of the

software features will be used extensively, modified to suit the purpose, or disregarded in

place of a manual system. There will also be a level of parallelism in use of the electronic

system and manual procedures, the interaction of which cannot be determined without

internal knowledge of the company.

An information-gathering exercise is therefore required to gain insight into the document

management methods employed in industry.

4.3.1 GOALS AND METHODOLOGYThe short project timescale would not permit an observational study and so an interview-

based study was used. This is an exercise for directing the project work rather than to gather

evidence to support a predetermined hypothesis, and so the focus will be on the opinions of


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the interviewees. For this, Bryman (1989) suggests a qualitative research method as the

emphasis in qualitative research tends to be on individuals interpretations of their

environments and of their own and others behaviour. As there is likely to be variation in the

company practices, a strictly structured interview process will not be possible. The research

strategy will therefore be a descriptive study of existing practices via a semi-structured

interview.

Research Question: How do engineers currently use and manage both electronic and

printed documents and resources, and integrate them with existing

management software systems?

There are three main processes involved in this research strategy:

1. Define research objectives and create interview questionnaire.2. Select and interview company representatives.3. Data analysis.

By setting research objectives, the ideas contained with the research statement can be put

into a documentable form. Three research objectives are common to all topics: current

practice, common issues and suggested improvements. The specific research objectives are

listed in Table 7 and were based upon the analysis of document management software and

the initial project group brainstorming exercise.

Having considered the information requirements, the way in which these will be obtained

must then be determined. The use of a scenario-based interviews can evoke task-oriented

reflection in design work; they make human activity the starting point and the standard for

design work. (Carroll, 2000). This will be using a list of prompting questions derived from

the specific information objectives listed in Table 7 as a prompt for the interviewees to

interpret and relate to their own experiences at their company.

Semi-structured interviews often use open-ended questions to enable discussion around the

key investigatory areas, and are widely used in flexible designs, either as the sole method or

in combination with others (Robson). These allow the interviewee to convey their opinion

on the topics and include related examples and information, whilst maintaining the guidance

of the interviewer for meaningful results. The final interview strategy can be created by

combining these questions with the diagrammatic framework of the scenario-based

interview and is available in Appendix B.


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TABLE 7 SPECIFIC RESEARCH OBJECTIVES FOR ENGINEER INTERVIEWS

Topic Specific Information Objective

Messages and

announcements

Electronic or paper format Confirmation processes Feedback processes

Version control

File system structure Revision security Document verification Document release

Resource linking

File system structure Hardware/software interfacing Document/resource metadata Referencing

Collaborative working Document/resource availability Review process

Document sharing Access security Document duplication and redundancy

TABLE 8 DETAILS OF PARTICIPANTS FOR ENGINEER INTERVIEWS

Company

ID

Engineering

Sector

Type of

Product/Service

No.

Employees

Interviewee

Role

Company

1

Defence and

security

Marine consultancy 1300 Engineering

Consultant

Company

2

Consumer

electrical

products

Design and manufacture

of consumer products

3000 Design

Engineer

Company

3

Plastics and

rubber

Design of manufacturing

machinery

200 Design

Engineer

Company

4

Aerospace Surface coating services 70

(26000

company

group)

Mechanical

Engineer


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Ideally, the data sample would be derived from all of the safety-critical sub-categories within

the engineering industry outlined in the introduction. However, due to the limited

preparation time, this was not possible. Therefore a convenience sampling method of

interviewee selection was used (Kane, 1984). This involved any willing participants within

an engineering company irrespective of their role. Information on the interviewees and

employers is shown in Table 8.

4.3.2 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONTo compare the four companies, information has been extracted from the interviews and is

summarised in Table 9, below. For further information a summary of the practices of each of

the four companies refer to Appendix C.

USE OF PAPER

Paper is still common and universally used for document review and annotation. The wet ink signature attitude is still prevalent and electronic authorisation through

digital signatures is not always trusted.

Keeping annotations for future document users is often poorly managed. The extent of paper document storage varies considerably. Some companies try to run paperless where possible, through electronic communication

and electronic editing, sharing and access to documents.

Out-of-date paper versions are a common issue. This is currently solved in two ways:either only electronic documents are trusted, or alternatively a strictly-controlled,

process-driven document management practice is used.

In one instance, manual filing processes are used for management and only one paperversion can exist. An official released colour stamp is used to verify the documents. This

enables the sole paper released document to be trusted fully.

A process-driven document management can be attributed to the strict Quality Assurance(QA) procedures required for ISO 9001 compliance.

Counter-intuitively, stricter QA involves a reduced level of system automation.ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

There are varying levels of computerisation and a solely electronic system is not alwaysthe most effective solution.

The access of features through a single interface increases designer efficiency in findingand accessing information.


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The easy sharing of resources through a fully-integrated electronic system lends itselfwell to rapid development and collaborative working.

Technology-based systems allow the designers to focus on the design tasks instead of thehousekeeping.

Most established engineering companies take a parallel integrate and evolve approach todevelopment of their systems.

Document management practices such as file naming and version control cannot bemanaged by common sense alone.

No correlation can be drawn between the company classification and whether they use atraditional folder structure or database for storing documents or CAD models.

A company could have any permutation of the processes and technologies suggested, i.e.every company is unique.

Any proposed general solution should be modular as there is no one-size-fits-allsolution.

RESEARCH METHODS

The document management practices discovered through the interviews were not as

expected and so gave a very useful insight into the role of paper and electronic systems in

four different engineering companies. These observations could be further enhanced by using

other research techniques in addition to the semi-structured interview, such as the analysis

of the working documents of the companies or a period of operational observation. This

would enable the triangulation technique described by Kane (1984) to verify the qualitative

interview responses.

Typically, unstructured interviews do not provide comparable responses. Although a

qualitative research method was used to gain unbiased opinions, the information had to be

analysed and categorised by the author.

Whilst the intention was to guide the project focus and suggest possible applications, useful

insight was gained through the limited sample size available. The method used can be treated

as a recommendation to future researchers and for implementation in industry, and with a

wider sample size and company base conclusions on the industry in general could be drawn.


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TABLE 9 SUMMARISED RESULTS OF ENGINEER INTERVIEWS

Company 1 Company 2 Company 3 Company 4

IM systemResource

library only

All

documents

and CAD

components

All

documents

and CAD

components

All

documents

and CAD

components

Document/report file structure Folders Database Database Database

CAD file structure Folders Database Folders Database

IM practicesProcess-

driven

Technology-

driven

Technology-

driven and

Process-

driven

Process-

driven

Level of automation Low High Medium Medium

Use of paper documents

Medium:

Review,

Approval,

Archiving

Low:

Review,

Archiving

Low:

Review

High:

Review,

Approval,

Production,

Archiving

Control of paper documents

Signed

coversheets

(released

documents)

None

Instruction

on CAD

template

QA stamp,

checking

procedures

(released

documents)

Archiving of released documentsHard-copyand

electronic

Hard-copyand

Electronic

ElectronicHard-copyand

Electronic


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4.3.3 OVERVIEWThe intention of the interviews was to find how engineers currently use and manage both

electronic and printed documents and integrate them with existing electronic resources. A set

of general statements can be made about important considerations in applying barcodes to

existing document management practices.

The referencing of other documents and resources is a common problem withexisting systems.

For some companies the use of paper is essential and should be enhanced throughelectronic interaction, not replaced.

Companies with strict quality assurance requirements tend to use a process-drivendocument management system with less automation.

Document storage is a mixture of folders and databases and is independent ofcompany size and industrial sector.

Most document management systems have evolved through procedure andtechnology developments, and companies cannot directly replace their entire system

easily.

Integrated technology-based systems allow better collaboration and workflowmanagement.


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4. 4 POTENTIAL BARCODE APPLICATION CONCEPTSThe findings from the document management software package analysis, engineer interviews

and document management literature review have highlighted a number of problems withthe current processes. This section presents seven conceptual scenarios with the greatest

perceived benefit.

Each of these concepts takes an area of an existing process and focuses on the area which is

most prone to an electronic system, process, or human error. It then attempts to mitigate the

risk of occurrence through the application of barcodes by suggesting an alternative process.

The seven concepts are summarised in Table 10.

TABLE 10 SUMMARY OF BARCODE APPLICATION CONCEPTS

Concept Category Description Sources

1Workflow

managementReview annotation capture

Engineer Interviews

Literature and failure cases

2 Storage Existence and archiving

Software Package Analysis

Engineer Interviews

3 Storage Print tracking Engineer Interviews

4 Referencing Dynamic reference storage Engineer Interviews

5 Status Version verificationEngineer Interviews

Literature and failure cases

6 Feedback Process control and feedback Engineer InterviewsLiterature and failure cases

7 Storage Metadata accessSoftware Package Analysis

Engineer Interviews


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4.4.1 CONCEPT 1 - REVIEW ANNOTATION CAPTURE

Rationale:

All of the companies interviewed use printed documents for annotation

during review. Sometimes this annotated document is not stored

electronically and after use the reasons for design changes can be lost

(Company 3, Literature 7). There is often no method for confirming that all

design changes have been carried out (Company 3). The manual involvement

in the scanning and storing processes can result in design rationale being

misplaced (Company 2). Batch processing of paper annotations is complex

(Company 2).

Requirement:A process is required which simplifies the electronic storage of annotated

documents with increased reliability through a reduction in manual input.

Current Process

An electronic copy of the document is printed

Annotations are made on the document

The document is scanned

Scans are manually renamed and placed into ageneral scan folder

The document is manually moved to the specificproject folder

Suggested Process

An electronic copy of the document is printed with abarcode containing the original document details

Annotations are made on the document

The document is scanned (potentially in batches)

The barcode is interpreted by software

The document is automatically named, moved to thespecific project folder and linked to the original

document


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4.4.2 CONCEPT 2 - EXISTENCE AND ARCHIVING

Rationale:

All companies interviewed use some form of electronic archiving and most

use hard-copy storage (Software review). Sometimes only released

documents are archived (Company 1). The reason behind the existence of a

paper document is sometimes forgotten (Company 3). It is not known

whether a paper document is current or can be archived or destroyed

(Company 3).

Requirement:A process is required where the rationale behind printing and expiry of a

document is recorded.

Current Process

A document is printed

After some period of time the reason for itsexistence is forgotten

Confusion whether document should be disposed

of or archived

Suggested Process

A document is printed with a barcode containinginformation such as when it was printed, by whom

and for what purpose

Upon scanning of the barcode, the 'existencerationale' of the document can be retrieved


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4.4.3 CONCEPT 3 - PRINT TRACKING

Rationale:

Some companies allow the use of printed documents for production

processes. Any printed document approved by the quality manager is

assumed to be the most recent version (Company 4). If a document is

replaced without destroying the original, for example if the original is lost,

then multiple instances with different content may exist and there is no way

of checking which is the correct version (Company 4). Typically this

information is not generated by document management software (Software

review).

Requirement:A process is required which labels documents with details of when, by whom

and why they were printed.

Current Process

A document is printed and stamped as the solereleased copy

The document is lost

A new copy must be printed and also stamped as thesole released copy

It is not possible to determine whether any futureuse is the most recent or the lost copy

Suggested Process

A document is printed with a barcode containing aunique identifier, and stamped as the sole released

copy

A unique identifier, and approval date and time arestored in a database

The document is lost and the database record isflagged as 'missing'

A new copy is printed with a barcode containing aunique identifier, and also stamped as the sole

released copy

Upon document use, scanning the barcode willindicate whether it is the most recent document or

the original 'missing' document


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4.4.4 CONCEPT 4 - DYNAMIC REFERENCE STORAGE

Rationale:

All of the companies interviewed did not explicitly state the target document

in their referencing system. The target document is not always contained in

the expected location (Company 1, Company 3). Sometimes the target

document may have been updated and no longer be applicable to the

referring document (Company 4).

Requirement: A dynamic link to the target document is required.

Current Process

References from within document are specified bythe target name

References manually looked up within the systemfolder structure

Suggested Process

References from within document are given a

unique identifier and the target location is stored ina database

Document is printed or viewed on screen

Scanning barcode checks database for updatedtarget location

Document is automatically retrieved

Reciprocal referencing lookup is possible


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4.4.5 CONCEPT 5 - VERSION VERIFICATION

Rationale:

Engineering drawings undergo many revisions (Literature 9). Often

manufacturing companies use existing drawings on repeat order of

components (Company 3). Without proper version control and checking

procedures the quality process cannot be guaranteed (Literature 8).

Requirement:A method for manufacturers to confirm they possess correct version is

required

Current Process

Drawings produced

Sent as printed copy or PDF to manufacturer

Parts produced

Suggested Process

Drawings produced

Version details made accessible from web server

Barcode embedded on drawings with link to currentversion

Sent as printed copy or PDF to manufacture

Scanning barcode runs server-side query to confirmcurrent version

Parts produced


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4.4.6 CONCEPT 6 - PROCESS CONTROL AND FEEDBACK

Rationale:

Often a lack of management concern and a poor maintenance and inspection

schedule results in failure of systems (Literature 9). Common issues with

document management are a result of poor collaborative working and

project organisation both internally (Company 3) and externally (Literature

9). Detailed documentation of products and systems is essential (Literature

5). The lack of feedback in document receipt often results in critical action

not being taken (Company 3).

Requirement:A method is required to improve the reliability of inspection and

maintenance during interaction between companies or departments.

Current Process

Product manufatured and passed to client

No maintenance procedure imposed

Suggested Process

Product manufatured and passed to client

Inspection barcodes placed at critical failure areas

Inspection schedule with safety accept or rejectbarcodes

Scanning barcode sends data back to designcompany

Warning flags if checks are not sent regularly or ifreject code scanned

Designer fixes faults to ensure safety


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4.4.7 CONCEPT 7 - METADATA ACCESS

Rationale:

No software packages provide electronic access to document metadata once

it is printed (Software review). The storage of document metadata is critical

to ensure a manageable and auditable paper trail (Literature 1). Traceability

in safety critical engineering roles is vital (Literature 2).

Requirement:The metadata should be available for a printed document in an electronic

format.

Current Process

An electronic document contains detailedmetadata

The document is printed

The metadata is lost

Suggested Process

An electronic document contains metadata

The metadata is encoded into a barcode andembedded on the document

The document is printed

Scanning the barcode reveals the document

metadata


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5 DEVELOPMENT OF METHODS FOR APPLYING BARCODESThe previous section considered the motivation for an improved document management

system and suggested possible concepts for solving the issue. This section extends this by

considering how these concepts could be applied and explores the issues by applying them to

a self-testing strategy, undertaking structured barcode testing and creating and analysing a

questionnaire concerning the importance and usefulness of information.

5. 1 SELF-TESTING OF CONCEPTSThis section uses a self-testing approach to validate and assess the concepts outlined in

Section 4.6. A selection of the concepts are applied to a weekly project report and the

methods of application are iterated and evaluated.

The purpose of the self-testing strategy is to associate these concepts to a scenario for the

project; to apply them concurrently to the working method with other project tasks and

research; and finally to analyse and evaluate the concepts.

By using a structured and systematic application with a detailed reflection and analysis of the

particular concept being investigated, it will be possible to obtain first-hand experience on

the effectiveness and limitations of the concept.

5.1.1 GOALS AND METHODOLOGYThere are three main goals of this self-testing strategy:

1. Provide evidence to support theory through experimentation.2. Accentuate unforeseen limitations of concepts.3. Suggest refinements to concepts for inclusion in the systems architecture.

A trial-and-error approach satisfies a carefully selected subset of the most important and

basic requirements. This solution is [then] evaluated against other requirements. For those

requirements that are not satisfied, modifications on the design are made to meet these

requirements while preserving the required properties that it has already satisfied (Hong,

2005).

The strategy will be iterative, and with each cycle, the method of applying the concepts will

be refined to work towards a perfect system. After each iteration, a short report will be


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generated outlining the techniques used to apply the concepts, and a brief discussion of the

benefits and limitations discovered, which is represented visually in Figure 4.

FIGURE 4 SELF TESTING PROCESS REPRESENTATION

SELECTION OF CONCEPTS

The engineer interviews and review of document management software packages has

highlighted a number of areas in which barcodes can be applied to document management

systems. Although not all concepts will be evaluated directly, the results generated may be

applicable to these and will allow an analysis. The criteria of available hardware, available

software, time resources required and potential application to a weekly report were applied

to select the concepts for application, as shown in Table 11.

TABLE 11 EVALUATION OF CONCEPTS FOR APPLICATION TO SELF-TESTING STRATEGY

ConceptHardware

RequirementsSoftware

RequirementsProject

Timescale

Applicable toWeeklyReport

Reviewannotationcapture

No No Yes No

Existence andarchiving

Yes Yes Yes No

Print tracking Yes No Yes Yes

Dynamicreferencestorage

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Versionverification

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Processcontrol andfeedback

Yes No Yes No

Metadataaccess

Yes Yes Yes Yes


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WEEKLY REPORT CONTAINER

To apply the concepts a weekly report container scheme will be used. A general report

template will be set-up, updated each week with the relevant data and then released as a

different version. The format of the weekly report container used is shown in Figure 5. A

metadata core is well suited to incorporate version control, document decomposition,

workflow management and linking to files and resources.

FIGURE 5 WEEKLY DOCUMENT REPORT CONTAINER VISUALISATION

APPLICATION OF CONCEPTS TO STRATEGY

This section describes the concept application and analysis for each iteration of the self-

testing strategy. Suggestions from the literature, research activities and the analysis of

previous iterations were used to develop the concept application methods. A summary of the

application method for each iteration is shown in Table 12 and the detailed description of the

each can be found in Appendix D.


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TABLE 12 METHOD OF CONCEPT APPLICATION TO SELF-TESTING STRATEGY

Concept Area Requirement Process Application

Metadata

Access

Information is

stored about a

document context

and content

Information about the

document itself will be

stored for each report.

A barcode can be used

on the title page and

contain information

about the author and

information within the

document.

Version Control

A document is

cyclically released

and then modified.

References and project

timeline will be updated

weekly and released as

a new document

version.


on the report and

contain information

relating to version

number.

Document

Decomposition

A document

contains labelled

sections or other

stand-alone

documents.

Using the weekly report

template as a container

to hold the references

and project timeline

documents as individual

sections.


alongside the section

titles and contain

information about the

section version and

original document

location.

Workflow

Management

A document is

passed between

users for input.

Confirmation of group

member receipt of

report can be either by

Email, SMS or database

update.


on the title page which

sends confirmation data

from individual users

when scanned.

Referencing

A document can be

supplemented by

further reading or

external media

Links to detailed

research on particular

areas and external

working examples

A barcode can be used in

the margin or as a

footnote to provide a

web link to the relevant

media.


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5.1.2 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONOne of the primary results from this study was the reflection on each iteration and the

recommendations for future iteration development. Table 13 demonstrates the iterative

development of each concept.

TABLE 13 ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT SELF-TESTING CONCEPTS

First Iteration Second Iteration Final Iteration

Metadata Access

Barcode in document

with encoded

metadata

Barcode on

coversheet with

encoded metadata

Barcode on coversheet

which contains

database query to

display metadata

Version Control

Barcode in document

title on first page

Barcode on

coversheet

Small barcode in

document title on

every page linked to

database version.

Document

Decomposition

Barcode next to

document heading

containing local

filename

Barcode next to

document heading

containing online

filename

Barcode next to

document heading

linked to database

resource location

Workflow

Management

Not implemented Barcode on

coversheet which

sends confirmation

email

Barcode on coversheet

which updates

database record

Referencing

Barcode next to

reference which

contains text URL

Barcode next to

reference which

contains text URL

Barcode next to

reference which

contains database

query to generate URL

The literature review demonstrated that timeliness is one of the most important aspects in

safety-critical management of documents and information. For the self-testing strategy this

was evaluated in two ways. Firstly, the user input requirement for document revision (a

common process to all three iterations) was assessed for the number of operations, mouse

clicks, mouse drags and keypresses. The results are displayed in Figure 6. Secondly, the level


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of automation for the main processes in the strategy was compared for each iteration and is

shown in Table 14.

FIGURE 6 USER INPUT REQUIREMENTS FOR DOCUMENT REVISION IN SELF-TESTING ITERATIONS

First Iteration Second Iteration Final Iteration Future Iterat