Sollac

Sollac Turns to AutoVue

Europe’s leading steel manufacturer views maintenance drawings on the fly using viewing technology from Cimmetry Systems.

Fos Sur Mer, France – Imagine that you are Europe’s leading producer of steel. You have facilities spread across Europe, the Americas, and the Far East. Your equipment runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and needs to be serviced several times a month in order to avoid costly downtime of more than $100,000 USD per hour. So how do you distribute the necessary drawings and procedures to maintenance people all around the globe? That was the problem recently faced by Sollac, a subsidiary of Usinor that’s based in the south of France.

Document / maintenance management system uses AutoVUE as front end
The answer that this $9.5 billion USD organization came up with was to roll out a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) and an electronic document management system (EDMS) with AutoVue software from Cimmetry Systems as the front end. AutoVue enables companies to open, view, and mark up more than 200 different kinds of CAD and business files, including AutoCAD, Visio, and Raster files (TIFF -- three of the most widely used file formats at Sollac.

“Before we implemented this solution,” begins Didier Rubiolo, Sollac’s project manager for technical EDMS,
“Most of our documents were in paper format and were controlled by a small number of people who had to make copies for everyone on demand. It was a slow process. Plus, our maintenance people were never certain that they were working with the latest drawing until they actually reached the site. Today, many of the drawings and documents they need are on line and can be viewed by anyone, anywhere within Sollac.”

Rubiolo reports that 70% of the documents – including drawings of smelters, pumps, motors, piping, and conveyor systems -- are still in paper format in the Usinor Group, but says that is “rapidly changing” now that the CMMS and EDMS solution is online and working so well.

More than one million documents already online
The online initiative at Sollac, began in 1997 and has been gaining momentum – and followers. “Today we have more than one million of the company’s estimated 5 to 6 million documents on line, and they are being accessed by thousands of people all across the company,” explains Rubiolo. “AutoVue has turned out to be a particularly good solution for Sollac because it is so straightforward and easy to use.” In fact, Sollac currently licenses more than 12,000 seats of AutoVue to provide document-viewing capabilities at its facilities around the globe.

AutoVue’s ease of use attracts users
“What we wanted to avoid doing,” explains Rubiolo, “was installing different CAD programs and drawing packages on hundreds of different computers for people who essentially only needed to look at things. That’s why AutoVue was such a good solution for us. It allows people to view virtually anything and it’s very easy, very intuitive to use.”

“The most commonly used functions such as pan, zoom, and print are accessible with a few clicks of the mouse,” continues Rubiolo, “while more advanced functions, such as selecting blocks or turning layers on and off, are available for our more advanced users. If we sit someone down and show them AutoVue, an hour later it’s like they have been using it their entire life.”

“The other thing that we find particularly helpful about AutoVue,” adds Rubiolo, “is that the interface has been very consistent over the past several years. Cimmetry has added many new features and capabilities, but it still has the same look and feel. So we don’t have to do a lot of retraining as new releases of AutoVue come out. People tend to pick up what’s new with very little effort.”

Out of the box compatibility with document / maintenance management system
Another major reason that AutoVue was selected is because of its compatibility. When Sollac began talking with Cimmetry Systems, it discovered that an out-of-the-box integration with its EDMS system was already available. A number of additional enhancements were requested, and Cimmetry worked hand in hand with Sollac to deliver them.

Rubiolo confirms, “I would have to say that Cimmetry is a very proactive company that provides very good technical support. When I submit a problem to them, I have complete confidence that they will come up with a solution.”
Benefits of AutoVue
So what kind of a difference is AutoVue making at Sollac? “One of our biggest concerns in this industry,” concludes Rubiolo, “is safety. I’m sure that with AutoVue and our EDMS and CMMS systems, our people are working more safely because they have instant access to the latest versions of drawings and plans. It’s risky to find yourself working with information that is out of date.”

AutoVue a “critical application”
“AutoVue is an integral part of our document and maintenance management system, so it has definitely become a critical application for us,” says Rubiolo. “Since drawings are readily available on line and it’s easy for everyone to use, people are slowly becoming less dependent on printed documents, which is saving us time and money. It’s a cultural change, but more people become comfortable with it every day.”

The fact that AutoVue is not simply a “view only” technology but also allows developers to query drawings and get at the underlying meta data is also a big plus. Sollac has also developed some specific applications based on the AutoVue toolkit.

“We also have plans to use AutoVue’s markup capabilities,” adds Rubiolo. “Today, people still prefer to write modifications onto printed drawings. But that, too, will change in time. This online solution with AutoVue as the front end is only going to grow.”

“AutoVue has clearly had a positive impact here at Sollac,” says Rubiolo. “I can’t put an exact dollar figure on it, but it’s certainly a technology that we have come to depend on.
Future plans
What comes next for Sollac? “We plan to bring our Belgium facility online in September [2001], which will add another 200 users and approximately 100,000 documents to the system” reports Rubiolo. “The long term goal is to get every site in the Usinor Group using our CMMS and EDMS solution with AutoVue.”