Other sources for information and inspiration include colleagues, scientific papers and old lab books. However, this is where problems arise. Colleagues are not always available and it is not always clear if a certain experiment has already been conducted. Lab books are a great resource for historical data, but in most cases, they are only useful to the people who wrote them, as they know where to look and how to read them. Even if computer files are available, they are often distributed on several file servers or are hidden in some place and they are only sorted by a one dimensional criterion. Searching from another perspective is almost impossible. Furthermore, every engineer has his/her own way of storing information, which means that various office and freeware software is used to create documentation. XperiDesk by Process Relations is a Process Development Execution System (PDES). It is used to organize and track the data and information gathered during the research phase of process development efforts. XperiDesk offers various tools to load, to manage and to retrieve data from various sources. It allows engineers to look at historical and current data and to make connections between the results gathered. By doing so XperiDesk enhances data and converts it into information that can be used for new product developments.

This whitepaper introduces two clients for the XperiDesk system that address the “heap” challenge. Meant is here the heap of historical data and constantly generated digital data on file servers. It will be explained how they can be used to convert the raw data into usable information within the XperiDesk PDES and what advantages engineers gain by using these tools.

Download the whitepaper