Technical Data Support

					

Technical Data Support

Technical Publications

Our technical publications developers use a Quality Assurance-driven team process, designed to reduce costs by minimizing rework and schedule delays due to deficiencies or corrections.  Publications development is a team process, where project managers, subject matter experts, illustrators, data managers and QA personnel work synergistically to deliver maintenance and operator products to our customers that often exceed quality expectation, are on-time and within budget. LSI develops content for:

  • Organizational, Intermediate, and Depot Level Maintenance Manuals
  • Flight and System Operating Manuals
  • Software Users Manuals
  • Wiring Data Manuals
  • Training Device Operator & Maintenance Manuals; Instructor/Operator Handbooks
  • Illustrated Parts Breakdowns
  • Periodic Maintenance Requirement Cards

We offer various methods of delivery from the printed page to electronic technical manuals (ETM). Our long history of publications development spans over 35 years with all the branches of the Department of Defense. In addition, we have provided publications services for a multitude of FMS customers, including Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Technical Illustrations      

Our technical illustrators produce graphics from the simplest block diagrams and line conversions to complex graphics and systems. Conversions of graphics from native authoring and publishing systems are performed for inclusion into documents. Our technical illustrators specialize in developing true, mathematically-based, vector formats from your existing raster graphics.

Legacy Data Conversion

We can convert legacy data to new specifications and create the required file types and establish or supplement file repositories and existing databases.

Quality

Our standardized publication development process ensures that deficiencies are identified and corrected during development, not after.  Incremental In-Process Reviews (IPR) provide strong customer involvement throughout the development process, enhancing technical accuracy and satisfaction with the products delivered to the customer.

S1000D

S1000D is an international specification for the procurement and production of technical publications. It is an XML specification for preparing, managing, and using equipment maintenance and operations information.  The technical information is authored as XML files called Data Modules (DMs) and stored in a Common Source Database (CSDB).  Recently, the specification has been expanded to include two new types of data modules, a SCORM Content Package Module (SCPM) and a Learning Data Module (LDM).  The purpose of the SCPM and LDM is to provide a method for including SCORM learning content in a CSDB alongside the technical manuals.

In 2009, LSI worked directly with the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative and the ADL Job Performance Technology Center (JPTC) to design a strategy for using a CSDB for storing and retrieving SCORM learning content.  The ADL team created a prototype CSDB interfacing tool called the Bridge API.  LSI modified one of its courseware development tools, SCO Workbench, to interface directly with ADL’s CSDB instance over an internet connection using the Bridge API.  With SCO Workbench, courseware developers were given a simple Graphical User Interface (GUI) to create and modify all of the different types of LDMs.  Those LDMs along with SCPMs could then be checked in and out of ADL’s CSDB.

Recently, LSI has modified its latest courseware development tool, Venus 2 Enterprise (V2E), to allow easier access to technical DMs during the courseware development process.  XML DMs can be imported into a SCORM package and linked directly to a SCO in development.  The tool parses the DMs and allows for the courseware developer to pull text directly from the technical publication.  Once linked, the developer now has a simple way to be notified of a technical change which may have an affect on the courseware content.  This kind of surveillance makes courseware development much easier, particularly when courseware development is being performed concurrently with the authoring of the technical publications.