Provision of industrial information resources through hypermedia

As information relating to manufacturing becomes more complex, it is inevitable that information overload will occur. When the information cannot be retrieved with ease, it is human nature to work without it. This paper discusses the use of an open hypermedia system, to resolve this problem. To be viable the hypermedia resource base must operate factory wide, and not centered on a single piece of plant. However the scale of the problem introduces a wide range of problems. We present a number of methodologies that need to be implemented to ensure that the introduction of hypermedia on the factory floor is successful. By considering two industrial applications, it is shown that in all cases information is retrieved faster and to a higher quality than current practice. Keywords: industrial strength hypermedia, user trials, manufacturing, hypermedia design and authoring