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BSH Hausgeräte GmbH
BSH and ST4: a new partnership brings interactivity to manuals
BSH Hausgeräte GmbH is Europe's largest household appliance manufacturer, with brands such as Bosch and Siemens and products for all areas of everyday life. And because BSH relies on SCHEMA ST4, with 150 technical editors in various locations and around 100,000 “live" publications in up to 50 languages, it is also one of SCHEMA's biggest customers. Networked home appliances have already been a reality for BSH for some years, and the company is now also preparing for its next developmental leap in technical documentation. If appliances communicate with you, the instructions need to be more than just words on a page - they need to get involved. In other words, they need to be able to respond interactively to your input. At the SCHEMA conference, Saskia Miller and Christina Steidle from BSH gave a presentation on why they decided to implement ST4 and how they are achieving this objective with the XML editing system.
The switch to ST4
From ovens to refrigerators, from vacuum cleaners to washing machines: BSH appliances can be found in every situation - and we're not just talking about one refrigerator or one washing machine. Numerous product variants place correspondingly high demands on variant management in technical documentation and require a high level of content reuse. A project at BSH contains information on many similar appliances and therefore forms the basis for a large number of instructions. Each project therefore has many production instructions and filters: projects with up to 600 filters are expected! SCHEMA ST4 is up to these requirements - during the evaluation phase, BSH determined that the ST4 standard version already covers the majority of its needs:
- ST4 has a powerful variant management system that meets all requirements.
- A high degree of reuse of topics and structures is possible.
- The nodes can be labeled with flexible, hierarchical metadata.
- ST4 supports multimedia content and interactive elements.
- No manual layout work is required.
- ST4 can be used as a basic system for future automation.
- Integration into the existing BSH system landscape (Media Asset Management, Translation Management System) is uncomplicated thanks to the ST4 standard interfaces.
The company therefore decided to switch to ST4 as a component content management system.
In addition, BSH's internal specifications required the consideration of some special features, which were taken into account with the definition and integration of a specifically developed DTD: These include the semantic labeling of information for flexible output as well as a deliberate restriction of flexibility in some areas in order to provide the editors with precise specifications. BSH can also selectively extend the data model itself, for example by defining its own topic types, for which the content model and icon can be individually selected.
BSH can also customize the presentation of the elements in the XMetaL editor; the content and structure are validated as always using a DTD when saved in XMetaL. BSH also validates against Schematron rules stored in ST4.
The “Interactive Manual” project
The first step towards digitalization in the technical documentation at BSH was to provide the instructions as PDF files. Later, simple HTML versions with the same content were also created. BSH's declared aim is now to convert the user manuals into an interactive format. The CCMS SCHEMA ST4 is the right solution for this, as it uses the latest web technology and responsive design to ensure that the instructions are displayed optimally on every device. Networked household appliances require this development, and users are guided to the information they need much more clearly, quickly and easily.
Simultaneous publication of many target formats
Finally, publications are made available via a dedicated interface in BSH's Media Asset Management (MAM). A metadata file for managing the publication in the MAM is created at the same time. However, individual instructions are not produced: With 25,000 user manuals published by BSH in 2017 alone, it is absolutely essential that a large number of documents can be created in different formats in a single step - from the “traditional” PDF to the new, interactively designed HTML format. With a corresponding adjustment in ST4, any number of production specifications can now be selected simultaneously and the creation of the target files including Schematron check, TMS status check and many other process steps can be started.
and so it goes on
After a successful pilot phase last year, the ST4 rollout is already underway in Germany. At the same time, the development of automation solutions is already underway: As every ST4 project at BSH involves many production instructions and filters, a (partially) automated system of filters and production instructions will make the editors' work much easier. Next year, the rollout will continue at the international BSH sites. In this way, BSH is bringing interactivity into every household with ST4.
Saskia Miller
Saskia Miller studied mechatronics with a focus on technical editing (B. Eng.) at Aalen University and now works for B/S/H/ Hausgeräte GmbH. As a SCHEMA ST4 key user, she is responsible for the conceptual development of the interactive manual and for the introduction of SCHEMA ST4 in the refrigeration product area.
Christina Steidle
After studying “Technical Editing and Communication” at Munich University of Applied Sciences, Christina Steidle started working at B/S/H/ as a technical editor in 2016. She is a member of the “Interactive Manual” core team and project manager for the SCHEMA ST4 pilot application in the Cooking product area.