USER STORY IN THE EDM/PDM WORLD : BRITISH ENERGY
USER STORIES
IN THE EDM/PDM WORLD :
BRITISH ENERGY
At the heart of every power station there are tens of thousands of
drawings and documents. These all need to be managed and kept up-to-date
to meet the nuclear industry's licensing requirements - some of the
strictest regulations in the world. The majority of the 5,000 British Energy staff
need access to this documentation, this is a major task, which reflects
on the safety and efficiency of every power plant.
The new document management system will enable British Energy to keep
this information online for total safety, flexible access, and accuracy
to the second. The five year agreement with Cimage, Sun MicroSystem's
largest business partner in the nuclear arena, follows the success of
earlier projects within British Energy.
Cimage is a leading supplier of focused information management solutions
to the nuclear, petrochemical and manufacturing industries. British
Energy's Configured Document Management System (CDMS) will mean faster
and more efficient approval of licensing to get plants up and running as
quickly as possible after routine maintenance. It will allow engineers,
consultants and designers to access information on the plants in
real-time via the intranet from any PC within the British Energy
organisation, ensuring consistency, heightened safety and best practice
throughout, with massive financial savings as an added bonus.
Edinburgh based British Energy is one of the largest generator of
electricity in the UK, supplying around one fifth of the country's
power. Set up after privatisation in 1996, British Energy owns and operates the
eight most modern nuclear power stations in the UK.
Every plant needs to comply with a variety of licensing conditions, from
training and safety requirements to up-to-date instructions on how to
maintain a piece of machinery. Any change or physical upgrade must be
audited, to ensure absolute safety, and the most up-to-date documents
must be available to staff, as well as official bodies, for reference at
all times.
"This is part of our drive to become a world-class company," said George
Jenkins, Executive Director, Operations at British Energy. "With the
lifecycle of a reactor running into hundreds of years we wanted to find
a single vendor who could show long term commitment to all of our needs.
Cimage's proven record with our drawing management system in Scotland
and their in-depth knowledge of the nuclear industry made them the
obvious choice. "
"As well as the flexibility and speed of access, CDMS also eliminates
the need for multiple and distinct management systems and training
programmes," Jenkins added. "Throughout the organisation we always aim
to adopt best practice, and the overall architecture means we can
interrogate how other plants do things, to maximise every resource
possible."
The CDMS runs on a Sun E450 server at each of the eight plant locations,
connected by a WAN for total visibility and access.
For further information contact:
Sam Rudland
Marketing Manager
Cimage Enterprise Systems Ltd.
Tel: +44 1344 860055
Fax: +44 1344 360453
Web: http://www.cimage.com
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Copyright 1999 by John Stark