Paperless Environment Research Articles

Toward a Paperless Environment

Access to the Internet and its vast stores of data and links among sites has changed the way in which we search for and gather information. A proposal from Harold Varmus, the former director of the US National Institutes of Health, may change this process even further. The stated goal of the “E-biomed” project is to develop a single Web site that would accept papers in every area of biomedicine and provide free access to the full text for all readers. This proposal has generated considerable debate, not all of it positive and some possibly mired in conflict of interest.

CFO's guide to EDI: How can you control the new paperless environment?

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) will be the only way of doing business by the year 2000, say the authors, who are technology consultants at a major accounting firm. The challenge for senior financial management will be how to control it. The authors explain how it can be done, and brief the reader on recent developments and the growth of EDI. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

CFO's guide to EDI: How can you control the new paperless environment?

CFO's guide to EDI: How can you control the new paperless environment?

Development of a form Fill-In Package: A First Step towards a Paperless Environment for Graduate Program Administration

Development of a form Fill-In Package: A First Step towards a Paperless Environment for Graduate Program Administration

Use of electronic identification (eID) and signatures for integrated operations

This paper defines the operational issues of using electronic identification (eID) and signature systems in integrated plant floor operations. An information architecture is described that allows effective use of eID with distributed control systems. The paper describes how the information architecture, including a life cycle methodology, can support a paperless environment including system validation.

Intelligent Automated Welding for Shipyard Applications

Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) integrated with Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) will form the basis of engineering/planning systems of the future. These systems will have the capability to operate in a paperless environment and provide highly optimized process operation plans. The WELDEXCELL System is a prototype of such a system for welding in shipyards. The paper discusses three significant computer technology advances which have been in into the WELDEXCELL prototype. First is a computerized system for allowing multiple knowledge sources (expert systems, humans, data systems, etc.) to work together to solve a common problem (the weld plan). This system is called a "blackboard." The second is a methodology for the blackboard to communicate to the human user. This interface includes full interactive graphics fully integrated to CAD as well as data searches and automatic completion of routine engineering tasks. The third is artificial neural networks (ANS's), which are based on biological neural networks (such as the human brain) and which can do neural reasoning tasks about difficult problems. ANS's offer the opportunity to model highly complex multivariable and nonlinear processes (for example, welding) and provide a means for an engineer to quantitatively assess the process and its operation.