Standards Development

Scope

This part of the IEC 82079 series specifies requirements for preparing Digital Interactive Fault
Diagnosis Manual, which is a digitally organized technical document that employs an interactive
approach to guide users through the process of fault location and resolution, primarily serving
repairable industrial systems, devices, equipment, and industrial products.
This document extends the preparation principles of the Digital Interactive Fault Diagnosis Manual,
specifies its content and interactive function requirements, the preparation process, as well as
related information models and version management, enriching and supplementing the IEC 82079
series.
This document applies to all stages of the manual preparation including planning, production,
delivery, and publication. It is applicable to a wide range of stakeholders involved in the preparation
of the manual, including suppliers, technical illustrators, professional translators, software
developers, and end-users.

Purpose

The fault diagnosis manual, an essential element of information for use of products, typically
delivered with the product, guides non-skilled and skilled persons to safely, effectively, and efficiently
identify, locate, and rectify faults. It is widely used across a diverse range of products, from large-scale
installations such as aircraft and construction machinery to smaller and medium-sized
consumer products like automobiles and household appliances.

As modern technologies advance, incorporating innovative techniques, advanced materials, and new
technologies, products are becoming more complex, automated, and intelligent. As a result,
conventional fault diagnosis manuals have proven insufficient in fulfilling user needs due to
inconsistencies in information structure, inadequate content framework, and lack of sufficient guidance
and interactivity. In response to this challenge, a global momentum is gathering around the preparation
and adoption of digital interactive fault diagnosis manuals. Therefore, it is imperative to prepare an
international standard for these manuals at the IEC level so as to address the following issues:

a) Manual preparation: fault diagnosis manuals commonly exhibit inconsistent information structures,
poor reusability of information models, and limited reusability across different projects and other
technical documents such as service manuals. These limitations not only increase the editorial
workload but also heighten the potential for inconsistency among various technical documents.

b) Manual usage: current fault diagnosis manuals encounter difficulties with insufficient interactivity.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of information technology and with the widespread adoption of
the Industrial Internet, these manuals shall not only enable interaction with humans but also
expand their interactive capabilities to include testing equipment or devices, the supported
products, and even virtual reality systems.

To address the aforementioned issues, this proposal rectifies various deficiencies in the development
and utilization of these manuals, and is expected to yield the following outcomes:

a) Safety. This proposal aims to enhance the interactivity of the fault diagnosis manual by extending
the interaction scope from users to products, equipment, and virtual reality systems. By
diversifying the interaction methods and content, the manual will achieve broader interactive
capabilities and improved interoperability. Enhanced interactivity facilitates users’ comprehension
on the manual's content, simplifies the operation, and minimizes the likelihood of errors during
fault identification and resolution, thus preventing escalation and safety impacts due to recurring
faults.
b) Efficiency. This proposal will establish an information model for manual production and a
continuous update mechanism for manual content, enhancing the accuracy of fault diagnosis
manual content and the efficiency of troubleshooting. This proposal provides guidance to complete
fault identification, isolation, and resolution more quickly and efficiently, thereby reducing
shutdown time caused by malfunction, and improving the company's service quality and brand
reputation.
c) Economy. This proposal focuses on the efficient use of resources by creating the digital fault
diagnosis manual through a structured and modular approach. By implementing a strategy of
"single input, multiple uses" for information, the manual will facilitate extensive reuse across
different projects and technical documents, significantly reducing the time and labour costs
associated with manual production.
d) Environmental protection. This proposal encourages and guides global industrial product
manufacturers to prepare digital interactive fault diagnosis manuals. While retaining the option to
publish printed manuals to meet specific user needs, it will enable large-scale paperless
application of technical documentation, significantly reducing paper printing, protecting the
environment, and promoting sustainability.

c) Manual updates: current fault diagnosis manuals frequently fail to meet the demands for rapid
iteration and continuous dynamic changes. For sophisticated manufacturing equipment and critical
safety systems, both of which often feature complex functions, structures, and technologies, the
understanding of product faults by suppliers or users would be enhanced through the accumulated
fault resolution cases during the product usage. This necessitates fault diagnosis manuals to
possess the capability of swiftly updating and iterating based on the collection of fault resolution
cases.

It is recommended that this document is advanced as a horizontal standard.
Relationship between the Interactive Fault Diagnosis Manual Proposal and IEC 82079-1:
IEC 82079-1 specifies the general requirements for various types of information for use of products,
whereas this proposal, as a supplement and refinement to IEC 82079-1, specifically addresses detailed specifications for fault diagnosis information within information for use. Building upon IEC 82079-1,this proposal focuses on standardizing the interactive functional requirements, information models, as well as the production and update processes of the manual in terms of the definition, transmission, transformation, organization, and application of fault diagnosis information, thereby enhancing the interactive capabilities, facilitating information reuse, and ensuring faster continuous updates of the manual.