And right here two key passages of the new directive open up:
- the safety of the user and therefore of those who "drive" the machine
- the reduction of legal responsibilities
But let's see how.
Why the machine user manual is important
The machine directive has existed for some time but aimed at the paper manual. But the real flaw has never been so much the cost of the manual or the impact on the environment. The real flaw is that it has always been difficult to consult, because it is often placed in a cupboard in some office and not near the car
And it’s something that we at OC have seen billions of times: you go to the workshop to take care of a machine but the manual isn’t there, but since it’s mandatory to keep it somewhere then maybe it’s in the technician’s office 500 m away. And it’s not a little booklet, maybe it’s 5 huge binders that I have to consult to find a single point.
The real advantage of the digital manual, which is not a current invention but something that has been produced for about twenty years but not yet made official (but the law will soon require it) is that if an operator has to carry out a maintenance routine, inside the digital manual, by asking questions, the algorithm will give answers. Which today is the algorithm, tomorrow it will be artificial intelligence, which will fish within the LMS database and not on the internet to truly give the most adequate response, which increases the user’s safety because it gives an immediate response to my problems with the car at that precise moment.
But let's see how.
Having access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with all the information about a car, via the digital manual, the user will have the opportunity to go and search for the information they need and even, if the company had been farsighted, will have real troubleshooting available with the various problems of the machine and how to solve them. So you will save time, especially at particular times or latitudes and you will avoid making mistakes, even putting your own safety at risk by trying solutions not examined by the manufacturer or company.
A well-made digital manual and above all, not a PDF file but a manual installed inside an LMS and on the machine allows me to track exactly what the user has done and whether he has done it carefully, with a time sufficient. So, as a practical example, if the technician who has to carry out an operation has never looked at the manual and a problem occurs, the company can say: the technician has never looked at the manual because in the LMS this result, this tracking it doesn’t appear and therefore it isn’t there. Therefore it is a real help in reducing legal responsibilities because it is demonstrable that if the operator has not been trained or did not want to be trained in correct use, the responsibility is well defined.
Do you want to know how e-learning can support you with the digital machine user manual?
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