New EU Machinery Regulation and the digital operating instruction

A long-awaited change is becoming a reality for technical documentation. The new EU Machinery Regulation enables the creation and provision of operating instructions in digital form. What do you think of this change, Thomas?

Digital operating instructions have several advantages, particularly in terms of updates, accessibility and environmental friendliness. If they are designed to be legally compliant and secure, digital operating instructions can offer users significantly greater user-friendliness.

What are the advantages for the user?

In my view, there are many advantages for the user, such as multimedia integration. Digital instructions can contain images, videos and interactive elements to explain complex processes and safety and security instructions more clearly. This can be particularly helpful for maintenance work or troubleshooting.

At SALZ Automation, we recently created a how-to video for a customer to explain the functionality of their application quickly and easily. We will be integrating such formats into the digital operating instructions in future.  

With an effective search function, users can quickly find relevant information without having to search through the entire document. Updates can be easily entered and made available to users to ensure that the latest instructions are always used. A unique version number and the date of publication are important here. 

What do you think needs to be considered?

Firstly, the instructions must comply with the legal requirements and contain all the necessary legal information, such as disclaimers and safety instructions. Companies must ensure that the manual complies with all requirements of the relevant norms and standards (especially C standards) and that all personal data that may be processed as part of the operating manual complies with data protection guidelines. 

In addition, the digital manual must be protected against cyber-attacks. The digital form must ensure that it is tamper-proof, and that access can be controlled. Access control mechanisms can be implemented to ensure that only authorised persons have access to the guide.

The manual should be provided in a widely used and easily accessible format, e.g. PDF or HTML, and should work on different platforms (Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS) and devices (IPC, tablet, smartphone). 

By taking these additional aspects into account, the digital operating instructions are not only legally compliant and secure, but also user-friendly and efficient. 

When can digital operating instructions be created and made available?

From now on - even under the Machinery Directive of 2006, which is still valid, but the safety instructions must still be enclosed in paper form. Manufacturers of machines and similar products can now get started.

The digital operating instructions should be accessible on various devices (IPC, tablet, smartphone) and ideally also be made available offline.

How is SALZ Automation tackling this issue? 

Our industrial control systems have expandable memory capacity and are already prepared to store the digital operating instructions accordingly. Our Android web panels with touch function are also supplied with an automation browser as standard and are ideal for making the operating instructions easily accessible.

For our own products, which fall under the Machinery Directive, we see the change as a great advantage and a profitable addition to our digitalised processes. We are already largely digitalising our documentation. For example, we generate our product data sheets and other product-related documents from the CMS. Our customers have their own login area with access to documentation and downloads.

We are currently examining which tools are suitable for creating and managing digital operating instructions and how we can securely integrate the instructions into our IT system. 

However, even though digitalisation is spreading through all levels of society, some people consciously make use of the opportunities offered by the analogue world. For example, I often observe on the train that many people prefer a good book, even though Kindle and the like are on the rise. Hybrid models for operating instructions are therefore also conceivable. We can imagine providing the installation information in printed, compact form with the product. The detailed, basic operating instructions can be made available digitally via other channels. In any case, it should be noted that we as a company make the digital operating instructions available wherever the users are. 

Thank you very much for the interview. It was interesting to learn more about the advantages of digital operating instructions and possible approaches to implementation.