F3Studio for Elettromeccanica Bovone
Technical documentation, risk assessment and installation manual for the glass industry
The challenge
Elettromeccanica Bovone, an Italian company that specializes in glass working machines, contacted F3Studio to draft the technical documentation for a semi-automatic laminating line.
Bovone, founded in 1954, has become a globally recognized manufacturer of specialized machines and plants thanks to his commitment towards quality and innovation.
Through a consolidated network of qualified agents, the company sells his products all over the world.
In this case, the glass working plant’s final destination was the United States.
The technical documentation contained all of the information required for the installation of this customized plan composed of various modules. On the one hand, no details could be taken for granted, especially when working in a different measurement system like the US market; on the other hand, the document had to be readable and to the point.
What F3Studio did
First and foremost, F3Studio studied industry Rules and Standards, visited the manufacturing plant many times to see the machine firsthand, created a photographic archive of the product, which was later handed over to Bovone, and defined what to include in the technical documentations with the Elettromeccanica Bovone engineering team.
From there, F3Studio was able to create 3 key documents, both in Italian and English: the risk assessment, the installation manual and the instructions on use and maintenance of the glass making plant.
As each industry has its own set of terms, F3Studio prepared a glossary to explain the one related to the glass making industry.
Added Value
F3Studio’s goal was to rationalize and simplify the information while complying with the requirements of the Rules and Standards: making it simple for the end user to understand.
Transferring knowledge from the manufacturer to F3Studio allows for checking and filtering of information that will then be passed on to the final customer. This way information flow has been checked and streamlined rather than going directly from the manufacturing company to the end user.
In this case, F3Studio spent a lot of time describing all of the interfaces and connections between the various modules of the machine and their connections to the electrical, air, and water systems.
When communicating with your customer, remember that they lack the technical knowledge of your engineering team, which designed and developed the product. This is the real challenge of technical communication.
Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Dan Heat refers to it as the “Curse of Knowledge”:
the person sharing the idea has all sorts of insider information that others do not and tends to take some information for granted.
Thanks to the collaboration with F3Studio, Elettromeccanica Bovone now has a document that can be used also for internal training of new employees.
Transferring knowledge across generations when key employees retire is a delicate point in the Italian industrial landscape, where the majority of companies are family owned and in many cases senior management is approaching the age of retirement.
Good technical documentation can help in avoiding corporate knowledge loss.
How F3Studio works
F3Studio has over 20 years of experience in a variety of fields, including mechanical industry, machine tool, packaging, marine, lighting technology and luxury goods.
As a cross-industry company, we import best practices from various industries.
For example, the architecture and furnishing industries, which export their products all over the world, have heavily emphasized the visual aspects of communication, reducing the amount of text that must be translated and making the instruction more user-friendly.
In other fields where safety is critical, the emphasis is on checklists and mistake-proofing operations.
F3Studio’s involvement in a variety of fields has improved the team’s ability to adapt to their customers’ workflows without being intrusive.