Annotation as a base to improve in-service feedback exchange during life cycle of complex systems

Operation, maintenance and decommissioning are important functions of the product life cycle. Information content of the product’s documents must be updated and adapted to the various needs of use of this information. This paper will focus on the issues concerning the formalization and normalization of the digital document exchange between engineering/constructor and owner/operator of an industrial product or process facility. Many authors point out the under instrumentation of the reading and interaction means with digital documents although information feedback of in-service use is critical for the updating of information and its use for design improvements. This paper will expose the results of studies on the use of digital repositories in product and process industries in order to identify improvements we consider as essential. It proposes a typology of annotations, first step of a more formal approach for the standardization of generic structures to support digital reading activities.