Meet You at the Information Intersection!

An in-plant can be much more than just an end-of-the-line manufacturing process. In-plants can refashion themselves into knowledge managers that support their parent organization’s strategic objectives and business goals.

The challenge for today’s in-plant manager is to compliment and add value to specific print-related skill sets by providing an information-rich environment integrated into the organization’s information systems. Rather than a unidirectional “island of information” that has just print output as its objective, the modern in-plant must become both an institutional repository and a multi-channel publishing entity coexisting with the organization’s total information environment. The modern in-plant must be both a contributor to, and participant in, the organization’s information ecology.*

In-plants are responsible for a range of document-related activities such as copier management programs, graphic design, course pack preparation/sales, and even photography and Web development. Common to all of these activities is their use of software systems. These systems increasingly use languages that can communicate and interoperate with one another. This is most evident through the push towards the JDF standard.

For an organization to successfully integrate its operations into an efficient and effective information ecology, a common document metadata standard must be agreed upon by major document workflow stakeholders. Fortunately much work has already been conducted here.

The Dublin Core

In 1994, at the Second International World Wide Web Conference in Chicago, a serendipitous discussion on semantics and the difficulty of finding resources on the Web took place. This inspired the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) to hold a joint workshop in Dublin, Ohio, to discuss metadata semantics.

At the “OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop” in March 1995, more than 50 people discussed how a core set of semantics for Web-based resources would be useful for categorizing the Web for easier search and retrieval. They dubbed the result “Dublin Core metadata” (dublincore.org).

Dublin Core has become an integral metadata set for most Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS). The EDMS is increasingly being recognized as the document heart of an organization. Through the application of a common document metadata standard, regardless of where the document is within its life cycle, it is possible for disparate information management activities to work cohesively with each other.

Thus the document metadata, as saved with the document in the EDMS, can be used to automatically populate the relevant fields in the in-plant online ordering system. Alternatively the submission of a document via the in-plant’s online ordering system can result in the assigning of metadata, which automatically populates the relevant fields in the EDMS, where the document is stored.

In reality an organization may host multiple storage locations, one of which could be the in-plant’s own EDMS. Through the use of standards for document interchange, the in-plant EDMS will interoperate with other institutional repositories, each of which may capture unique metadata attributes specifically relevant to the user’s purpose.

Automated workflow systems can build master libraries of all metadata attributes from various repositories and use these to ensure version control, regulatory reporting and life cycle obsolescence. They can also enable automated document building based on key workflow milestones being reached.

In this manner, the on-demand production of training or product-related documentation can be programmed into the manufacturing workflow of assembly plants. This can enable product and language specific output at the point of product packaging.

Alternatively, the validated enrollment of students into specific study programs can trigger the automatic extraction of course reader articles from a database. Students can have the option of viewing customized pages from a secure Web environment (e.g. a student portal) or requesting on-demand print output of all or some of the document.

If the in-plant has deployed emerging software technologies into the multi-functional devices (MFDs) it manages and has integrated this into its own information architecture, then the choice of available output devices increases. A student could print materials in his or her residence hall at 3:30 in the morning if need be.

Similarly, the same MFD, upon user authentication via swipe card or proximity device, can be used as a scanner to capture content, which is automatically routed to the EDMS. Metadata assignment may be enacted at the time of capture or an online form could let the user complete the required metadata fields via a networked computer.

As many in-plants have discovered, providing scanning and archiving services can represent a sizable new business opportunity. An efficient in-house image capture service can offer an organization a fast-track method for getting its legacy knowledge assets into a metadata-assigned Web-accessible format. The competencies the in-plant gains as a result of using an EDMS for document storage and archival are invaluable in developing its validity as a knowledge manager.

Many EDM systems now come with workflow tools integrated into the software bundle. When teamed up with the organization’s business analysis and information systems groups, the in-plant can develop solutions that integrate document workflows into financial and other business process systems. This can represent a boon to the in-plant as it seeks new income channels. It can also enable the organization to gain wider cost efficiencies across its business processes.

Understanding established and emerging document standards gives the in-plant an opportunity to consider new service offerings. Where such offerings can be integrated into the wider information ecology, there are distinct advantages for both the in-plant and the parent organization.

If the outcomes of new service offerings enable the in-plant to position itself as a knowledge management enabler to the wider organization then the risk of potential outsourcing may be reduced and the value contribution of the in-plant increased. IPG

Before taking his current position as the manager of printing and copying operations at at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, Wayne Riggall served for 17 years as the general manager of Waikato Print at the University of Waikato. He has worked in the printing industry for more than 28 years. Wayne has a masters degree in Business Information Systems, and a post-graduate diploma in Document Management. He recently achieved recertification of the EDP (Electronic Document Professional) accreditation from Xplor International, where he has held numerous positions, including Asia/Pacific regional president and New Zealand chapter president. Wayne has also served on the management board of Printing Industries New Zealand and has tutored in the RMIT School of Business Postgraduate and Masters programs for Business Information Systems. You can contact Wayne at: wayne.riggall@canterbury.ac.nz

* Information Ecology, Thomas Davenport & Laurence Prusak, Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN:0195111680