Northwest Airlines Completes OPTIX Installation: Manuals on-line for 15,000 maintenance personnel

Flint Hill, VA.--August 10, 1999-- With the recent removal of their microfilm data system, Northwest Airlines has become the first airline to completely computerize its aircraft maintenance manual system. NWA relies on the OPTIX Document Management system to make its manuals available to some 15,000 maintenance personnel over TCP/IP networks. OPTIX software now manages the production, storage, revision, and distribution of several hundred thousand pages of maintenance manuals for a fleet of more than 400 airplanes. Northwest mechanics worldwide use OPTIX twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

The Northwest Airlines Technical Publications department adds Northwest-specific changes to vendor-generalized print documents, creating Northwest-specific manuals. The manuals are updated with up to 100,000 updates per month. Before OPTIX, mastered manuals were then duplicated in paper, microfilm, and WORM/CD-ROM formats for distribution to thirty-five domestic and eighteen international maintenance bases and stations.

To improve performance, reduce costs, and eliminate potential regulatory penalties, Northwest Airlines turned to OPTIX software to create a centralized computerized source of manuals, distributed to Northwest personnel through its internal TCP/IP network. Blueridge Technologies has worked with Northwest throughout the installation, helping to bring the system on-line with over half a million pages.

Today, Northwest mechanics can access the most up-to-date aircraft information on the company intranet using Windows workstations located in the hanger maintenance bays. With OPTIX Web software and a standard browser such as Netscape Communicator, mechanics can query the central server to retrieve information from the on-line manuals.

The Northwest Airlines custom OPTIX system consists of: the OPTIX Archive Server residing on a Sun UltraSPARC, running a Sybase database management system and attached to a RAID system accommodating up to 12 million pages. OPTIX software on Windows and Macintosh workstations, for scanning, storing, updating, and reviewing documents. OPTIX Web software, the core of which is a set of programs executed by the Apache Web server through the Common Gateway Interface.

OPTIX Web for Northwest supports search and display of electronic documents with the Netscape web browser, electronic image conversion utilities to convert manuals formerly stored on Intel 286 systems to standard CCITT Group 4 TIFF images for loading into OPTIX, manual staging for retaining on-line availability for manuals during updates, including immediate posting of updated manuals, publication automation utilities that use intelligent scanning to build links for the publications department.

OPTIX is one of several document management and information warehousing products from Blueridge Technologies, Inc. Founded in 1988, Blueridge Technologies is one of the industry¯s oldest and most respected providers of electronic document management systems and information warehousing. In 1994 Blueridge Technologies became the first document management company to offer Workflow, Document Imaging, Document Control, Computer Output to Laser Disk (COLD), and Natural Language Retrieval for both Windows and Macintosh platforms. Blueridge Technologies products now support internet document management and information warehousing using popular web browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer.

Blueridge Technologies has developed custom OPTIX systems for companies such as Federal Express, Emory University, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and Apple Computer. For a Blueridge Technologies Press Kit, camera-ready artwork, or product information contact Blueridge Tec hnologies at 540-675-3015 (optix@blueridge.com).