Electronic Parts Catalog Standards: A Better Way

摘要

"Non-wrench" time for Transit Industry maintenance mechanics is staggering. Studies show that up to 50% of their time is expended in non-repair activity. Half of that time is expended researching repair and parts information.This problem is being addressed in all industries with the deployment of Electronic Parts Catalogs (EPCs). EPCs offer enormous benefits to maintenance organizations (usually producing ROI's of less than one year). Placing repair and parts information in the mechanic's hands "closes the loop" in maintenance operations. Armed with quick and accurate repair information, repairs are done faster and with greater accuracy putting valuable assets back in service sooner. Some Transit Industry Suppliers, aware of the benefits of EPC's, now offer their maintenance manuals and parts catalogs in CD formats geared to run on applications proprietary to that manufacturer. However, legacy documents and documents from other manufacturers do not become part of those solutions. Without a Standard for EPC data, each manufacturer will incur the costs of developing their own EPC application, and each Transit Authority will be required to utilize multiple EPC applications within their maintenance organization.AIT, under contract from the Rail Industry, developed a Standard for the exchange of EPC information. As a result, many of the same manufacturers that support the Transit Industry are already publishing to this Standard (The Electronic Parts Catalog Exchange Standard EPCES). There is opportunity for the Transit Industry to adopt, modify or develop their own "EPCES".With such a Standard, every manufacturer's EPC would run on the same workstation with the same user interface; manufacturers would not individually invest in developing EPCs; other vendors would develop products and software that would support this singleStandard; and it would become feasible for Transit Authorities to integrate EPC information into their purchasing and Vehicle Maintenance Systems (VMS).