Advanced Manufacturing Documentation: Process-Based and Practical Considerations

Abstract

This paper examines documentation procedures and rhetorical contexts navigated by technical communicators in postindustrial, advanced manufacturing environments. Also addressed are the challenges of structure and authority faced by the technical writer in postindustrial hierarchies, particularly those of a STEM-dominated field. In reference to produced documentation, the need for technical communicators to explore alternative formats is such that the traditional operating manual may not be sufficient to fully account for the complexities of automated and digitally-augmented manufacturing systems. Documentation processes, then, must account for collaborative, distributed work approaches, as well as those of technology transfer in the composition and distribution of documentation in support of postindustrial, advanced manufacturing