From Documents to Libraries: The Case for Specifications

Standards are crucial in ensuring consistency, safety, and compliance across industries. According to ISO, “A standard is a document that provides requirements, specifications, guidelines or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that materials, products, processes, and services are fit for their purpose.” 

However, managing specifications from these standards often remains a document-heavy process, making extracting and applying relevant information efficiently difficult. Creating a specification library, where extracted specifications are stored in a structured format, solves this challenge. It enables better retrieval, classification, and linking specifications to relevant subjects (e.g., activities, physical objects, and agents), ultimately facilitating validation and compliance processes.

What Are Standard Specifications?

Specifications are concise statements of requirements for materials, products, or services to be purchased by an industry or government agency. They are limited to a specific project, company, or government agency.

On the other hand, we recognize standard specifications as the most practical and appropriate current solution. As agreed upon by a recognized authority (or sometimes internally), for a recurring problem. Think of them as formulas that describe the best way of doing something. This could involve making a product, managing a process, delivering a service, or supplying materials.

Standards are the distilled wisdom of experts in their subject matter who understand the needs of the organization(s) they represent. These experts include manufacturers, regulators, asset owners, and trade associations.

For example, in healthcare, ISO 13485 ensures that medical device manufacturers follow strict quality management protocols, reducing malfunctions and enhancing patient safety. The energy sector follows guidelines like ISO 50001 to improve efficiency and sustainability by setting clear guidelines for energy management systems.

The Role of Specification Libraries

Expert-backed guidelines, specifications, and standards enhance reliability, safety, and efficiency. However, traditional specifications are often stored in lengthy, static documents. While these documents serve their purpose, they have significant limitations and can be challenging to navigate, interpret, and apply consistently. 

As processes or projects become more complex, the need for more dynamic and adaptable systems becomes apparent. This is where specifications libraries come into play. A structured, model-based approach using specifications libraries offers a more efficient and accessible alternative. Organizations can improve standard specifications’ consistency, exchange, and reusability by organizing specifications into libraries. 

A library of structured specifications allows users to search, filter, retrieve, and share relevant information more efficiently, reducing time spent interpreting complex documents. Standardized specifications libraries ensure a uniform application and reusability across projects and different software, minimizing errors, misinterpretations, and time-consuming manual work. 

Unlike static documents, specification libraries offer the flexibility to adapt and scale as specifications evolve, making new versions more manageable without requiring complete rewrites. Users also better understand how standards apply to specific components or activities.

Why you should use the Laces Standards Manager 

In most industries, such as manufacturing, engineering, and construction, specifications libraries can enhance collaboration, the reusability of standard specifications across projects, and faster compliance checks. Shifting from document-based to model-based specifications transforms how you manage standards, making them more dynamic, interoperable, reusable, and suitable for your processes and projects.

Our Laces Standards Manager is a tool designed to assist in extracting and managing specifications libraries. It offers an easy-to-use web app. This web app empowers users to create and manage libraries of standard specifications, including the subjects of these specifications. You can do this manually or by automatically extracting information from PDF documents.

It allows users to:

1. Extract text from PDFs: convert document-based specifications into structured model elements.
2. Classify extracted text: assign meaning to extracted text by linking it to predefined categories.
3. Enrich specifications: Describe concepts in more detail by adding attributes, metadata, and logic and linking specifications to different kinds of subjects, such as objects, activities, or objectives. 
4. Manage specification libraries: store, organize, and version specifications in a structured format.
5. Publish your libraries: make your knowledge reusable by publishing it on the Laces Data Platform or exporting it in various formats.

By transitioning from document-based to model-based specification management, organizations can:

• Improve retrieval of specifications.
• Create meaningful connections between specifications and subjects.
• Make specifications available for every software product, such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software, BIM Applications, or Systems Engineering Tooling. 
• Reuse specifications over different projects and processes.
• Facilitate validation and compliance checks.

Conclusion

Managing specifications effectively is essential for organizations dealing with standards. By leveraging Laces, businesses can create structured specification libraries that enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and streamline compliance processes. 

With our innovative app, organizations can transition from scattered document management to a structured, model-based approach that makes specifications more accessible and actionable.
Are you interested in learning more about standards management in practice? Use this link to book a free demonstration or download our case study.