Sharing Data with Ministry of Defence UK

The following announcement was published on 14 November 2000 in "Defence Contracts International":

"The MoD now specifies the electronic exchange of product model data in many of its contracts. In January 2003, the Department will introduce a new policy that, wherever this is required, IS 10303, Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) will be adopted as the uniform standard of preference.

 STEP is a standardised way of structuring information to reflect the needs of supported business processes. It provides implicit quality assurance to improve reliability and eliminate transcription errors and is based upon sound computer science principles, which aim to make the standard extensible and not technology limited, hence maximising longevity. STEP provides a mech-anism for handling archive, and over time, legacy data.

Increasing use of STEP ISO 10303 standard in world defence markets

Early parts of the Intern-ational Standard were released in 1993 and development has continued through the imple-mentation of its Application Protocols. STEP is already in use in the aerospace industry (including Boeing, BAE SYSTEMS, and Rolls Royce), the automotive industry (including BMW, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen) and in the US and UK defence departments (including the Rapid Acquisition of Material Parts - RAMP - initiative).

Between now and January 2003, the MoD and appropriate industrial partners will be conducting a number of pilot implementations of the standard to develop the necessary expertise."

EXPRESS Data Manager is used for STEP implementations at BAE SYSTEMS, AIRBUS, Daimler-Chrylser, and many more, includ-ing the SEDRES team developing AP233.

For more information on MoD policy initiative, contact Margaret Christison mc@modils.demon.co.uk or the
ILS Help Desk at the MoD LO HQ, Bath, UK, on +44 1225 467251.