I travel to customer sites and I cannot imagine driving without a GPS device or an application like Google Maps in a new city. Taking the right turns in cities like Boston seems like a daunting task without the friendly voice of GPS guidance. The burden of navigation is lifted and allows you time to think more about meeting the destination. Assist+ is such a navigation device for Oracle Agile PLM solutions.
A similar scenario happens when the default Agile PLM user interface forces users to go through a new unfamiliar process or create a part or document with a mass of unfamiliar attributes without any guidance on reason or rules behind the data. You cannot visually differentiate what is critically important as opposed to what is just informational. The attributes are usually not for everyone. On a business case document, the finance people fill out the price and volume forecasts, the engineer needs to fill out dimensions, salespeople list out potential target customers, and operations may fill out the required contract manufacturers. Nothing on the screen guides you through this process except for the label in detail about the attributes. Users have to rely on rusty training. The same difficulty applies to table columns and redlining.
One can limit attribute visibility through security or text codes in the attribute description or column name description, both inelegant solutions and prone to administrative management.
The same problem exists for workflow statuses. The user has to rely on training on the actions to take on status. For example, a status “First Article Inspection” may require an assigned user to create an FAI record on the relationships tab. There is no help for the user on the steps to take except for the training that may have happened months ago. This situation is rife with errors, and irrelevant or bad data.
Rich text labels on attributes and workflow statuses are a solution to alleviate this pain point. Xavor calls this rich text enabling extension to Oracle Agile PLM solutions with Assist+. Help messages appear when you hover over the attribute which can change based on the user’s role in Agile. Rich text means graphics, video, charts, links to download, and other supplementary documents.
Example of Hovering Over Help Text on the Attribute Notes
You are not limited to text but you can include images to help determine a value for an attribute. In this example, a displayed graph is used to determine the correct value for power dissipation to be entered.
- Below is an example of a description table specifying the meaning behind the code for Induction Tolerance.
Here’s another example of material description using an image:
- The rich text also appears on workflow statuses in order to prompt the approvers and assignees on action to take.
With Xavor’s Assist+ solution, an Agile PLM maintenance user does not have to rely solely on training on the actions to take on statuses and attributes. The chance for bad actions, irrelevant data, error-prone data, or calls to the Agile admin help desk is reduced. The change analyst is freed from following up on ill-formed changes and focuses more on enforcing change policy. Well-created guidance content can be GPS-like navigation to create good parts and documents and reduce the cycle time of change management.