The market for electronic components is dynamic and constantly evolving. It represented 484.99 billion US dollars in 20211.
To design a datasheet for an electronic component, manufacturers must spend many tedious hours managing large volumes of data, creating a suitable page layout, approving each document before publication…
Discover the main challenges facing manufacturers of electronic components when designing their datasheets and how PIM can simplify the task.
#What's a datasheet?
In the industry of electronic components, the datasheet is a document which factually describes the product and contains a lot of technical information. It is often downloadable in PDF on the manufacturer's website.
For electronic professionals, the datasheet contains all the information necessary to use the component, as well as any required legal information (CE markings, certifications, labels…) and performance indications…
The datasheet enables customers to compare the electronic components of several different manufacturers and to find out how to use them.
#The difficulties involved in designing datasheets
#Managing large volumes of data
Creating a component datasheet involves centralizing a large volume of data, and in particular the list of all technical information.
Among the data required:
- Lifespan
- Detailed technical characteristics
- Test conditions
- Precise user specifications
Guarantee the reliability of information
Missing information, incorrect specification, duplicate data… These errors can significantly impact the customer and the manufacturer has full responsibility and can be liable to sanctions or criminal accusation.
This means that in case of the slightest change to a component (addition of a technical characteristic, adaptation to new standards, adjustments…) the manufacturer has to amend the corresponding datasheet and ensure that any information published is reliable and up to date.
#Create a page layout
When a manufacturer designs a datasheet, they face many challenges to produce the most suitable page layout. They must also manage a wide variety of content (technical blueprints, curves and graphs, technical data, standard symbols, photos…) and present the document clearly.
This results in technical datasheets of variable lengths ranging from a simple double-sided page to twenty-page documents. For manufacturers, this involves creating many different documents.
#Build your datasheets with PIM
#Optimize your management of technical data
To design and generate a datasheet, it is essential to use a PIM (Product Information Management) solution.
The PIM will simplify the process of inputting technical specifications, customizing each information field in detail, and organizing the product datasheet:
- Merging
- Types of data
- Units
- Translations
- Default values…
Improve the document validation process
PIM solutions guarantee the consistency of information and facilitate the datasheet proofreading and approval process. The PIM centralizes all technical information and allows each contributor, according to their user rights, to improve its quality: enrichment, translation into several languages (Chinese, English, Spanish…), automatic verification of completeness…
Each contributor, can also check the datasheet's status at any time (« awaiting approval », « approved », « refused »...) to follow its progress and access key information concerning any revisions: name of the initiator, date, revision number, comments…
Once the document has been approved, this information will be updated automatically. The PIM also protects any intermediary version of the datasheet to ensure that only the validated versions can be published: status watermarked on each page (preliminary, obsolete…), possibility of downloading the datasheet only after it has been approved…
#Generate your datasheets automatically by combining PIM with an automatic page layout module (Print)
Associating the PIM with an automatic page layout module (Print), will enable you to use the information generated by the PIM to automatically generate professional quality documents. With this solution manufacturers can define their own template: text boxes, sections and sub‑sections, titles… and use the same template to design all their datasheets, whatever the number of pages.
On each datasheet, they can organize a large volume of technical characteristics and manage groups of information dynamically: mask titles when the associated fields are empty, mask sections that don't need to be displayed, automatically position the completed fields at the top… This way, datasheets only present the information that is relevant to describe the product.
To sum up, combining PIM with an automatic page layout module (Print) will allow you to generate datasheets speedily and to guarantee the consistency of the information they contain. With this software solution, the datasheets generated will contain detailed information, respecting legal obligations, and meeting the demands and needs of electronic professionals.
1 The Business Research Company. (2022, May 17). Global General Electronic Components Market Analysis. prnewswire.com.