Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370

XML-based ISO9000 electronic document management system$

Yin-Ho Yaoa, Amy J.C. Trappeyb,*, Pei-Shun Hob
a
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ta Hwa Institute of Technology, Taiwan
b
Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
Received in revised form 15 May 2002; accepted 29 November 2002

Abstract

Maintaining, customizing, sharing and reusing ISO9000 quality documents are essential for many organizations, especially those
who work as virtual enterprises (VE). In a VE, the documents must be shared among organizations to take the full advantages of the
recent Internet advances. XML is a new browser-based language standard. The purpose of this research is to explore the capabilities
of XML and Internet technologies in electronic document management environments to comply with the ISO9000 requirements.
This research has demonstrated several XML-enabled examples beneficial for the main functions of ISO9000 document
management such as document creation, document change, document control and document access. The implemented examples
demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiencies of document customizing, querying, hierarchical linking, tracking and reusing. The
research results solve the ISO9000 document-related problems among working partners and facilitate document flow and
information integration of value chain.
r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Electronic document management; eXtensible markup language (XML); ISO9000; Virtual enterprises; Value chain

1. Introduction nies of the extended enterprises rely heavily on electronic

The ISO9000 series are the international standards of
quality management and quality assurance. It depicts
the quality system document and data control require-
ments including document approval, issuing, accessing
and changing [1]. It also states that companies should
establish procedures for making modifications,
revisions, and additions to the contents of a document
[2]. Traditional paper-based documents have caused
many related problems such as maintaining, customiz-
ing, sharing, reusing, tracking and accessing of docu-
ments. Finney [3] reports that document-related
problems are the major ISO9000 non-conformances.
To conform to the ISO9000 requirements and manage
the documents efficiently, many organizations have
transformed the paper-based documents into electronic
forms. Furthermore, in order to quickly respond to the
market needs and keep competitive advantages, compa-
$
This research is partially supported by the ROC National Science
Council Research Grant.
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +886-3-5742651; fax: +886-3-
5722685.
E-mail address: trappey@ie.nthu.edu.tw (A.J.C. Trappey).
document and data interchanges [4]. Documents contain
many valuable information components. By using and
sharing information efficiently, members of a virtual
enterprises (VE) can greatly increase its supply chain
efficiency. Thus, many electronic document manage-
ment systems (EDMS) emerge in recent years, e.g., the
Master Control software package [5], the QMS/9000+
document control modules [6], the Document Control
system [7] and the iSO-Pro software system [8].
1.1. Current EDMS solutions and limitations
EDMS has automated the routine aspects of creating
and maintaining quality system documentation bringing
benefits to the organizations. Some of these benefits
include better control and management of documents,
greater efficiency in maintaining, accessing, and
distributing documents [9]. For examples, the Document
Control Systems Inc. offers the Master Control software
package to provide a solution to the document control
requirements of ISO/QS9000 [5]. The Systemcorp
Performance Systems Company offers the software
product, Office Control 9000 and Process Components

0736-5845/03/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0736-5845(03)00003-6
356 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370

Table 1
Characteristics of XML and benefits of using XML

What has been said Sources (Refs.)

What’s about XML XML as a document format, document management format and data format [11]
The universal format for structured documents and data on the Web [12]
XML as a format for application data exchange and storage [13]
XML as meta data
XML as data [14]
XML is the language of integration [15]
XML as a vehicle for data interchange [16]

Benefits of using XML Better search results [17]

Enable collecting and integrating data from multiple sources
Enable merging several XML document instances into one [18]
Providing common language to reduce time and cost to develop interfaces [12]
Make the storage, retrieval, and distribution of information faster, more [19]
efficient, and more responsive to real human and organizational needs
Make the job of integrating those different systems much simpler and more efficient
Preserving the richness of information
Make information exchangeable and reusable [14]

98, to companies seeking ISO9000 registration. The
John A. Keane & Associates Inc. provides the QMS/
9000+ document control modules to address the ISO/
QS9000 document control requirements from life cycle
point of view [6]. The Harrington Group offers
Document Control System to track, organize and
manage documents [7]. The Business Challenge Ltd.
provides the iSO-Pro software to help companies
to achieve ISO9000 document control requirements [8].
A database software system, called ProcedureWRITE
and offered by Comprose Company, is specially
designed for structured knowledge document manage-
ment [10].
Although these benefits of EDMS are significant,
there are still some limitations when considering the
issues of document customization, information exchange,
reusing, intelligent search and integration. For example,
most of the available EDMS solutions are in HTML
format and developed using traditional method. Thus,
their limitations are in flexible information exchange
and document customization/adaptation for multiple
users’ needs. Furthermore, few research or commercial
solutions really touch the integration issues in document
creation, review, approval, modification and release,
which are the key functions of ISO9000 document
control. Electronically integration of these functions is
essential to streamline the document flow among supply
chain members and reengineer information value chain.
The limitations are mainly due to the facts that most
current ISO9000 EDMS solutions are not standard
XML enabled. Hence, it is important to study how the
new XML capabilities and related technologies can be
used to fulfill the ISO9000 compliant document manage-
ment and integration. Thus, a new-level of web-based
knowledge management and document manipulation
can be achieved.
1.2. XML and its benefits
XML is a web-based data language standard. It
separates the document’s contents, structures and
presentations and the XML tags have their distinct
meaning. Thus, with proper web development tools, the
XML document has many important applications and
delivers significant benefits. Table 1 shows the summary
of XML features and enabling benefits of using XML.
The widespread support for XML building among
browsers, authoring tools, parsers, databases and other
content applications reduces the cost and risk of
extending applications to XML input and output [20].
In recent years, there are active moves to introduce
XML as a standard data exchange format for electronic
commerce and document management applications
[21,22].
The purpose of this research is to explore the
capabilities of XML and Internet technologies in
electronic document management environments to
comply with the ISO9000 requirements. To go into the
main parts of the study, we must have some background
information on ISO9000 and ISO10013 as described in
the following sections.
1.3. ISO90001
The ISO9000 series are the international standards of
quality management and quality assurance. It includes
1
The document management requirements of the study is based on
ISO 9001:1994. Although the standard will change to the ISO
9001:2000, the new standard still requires organizations to have
a quality manual which includes the documented procedures or
procedures references [http://www.lrqa.co.uk/ass-90012000.htm]. At
the time of this study, ISO 9001:2000 is only a draft version under
development.
 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370
requirements for quality systems development,
implementation and application. The actual standards
within the ISO9000 series are ISO9001, ISO9002 and
ISO9003. The ISO9001 is the most comprehensive of the
standards and covers a wide range of activities related to
product quality including design, manufacturing, in-
stallation, and services [23]. It is used when the supplier
must ensure product conformance to specified needs
throughout the entire product cycle [24]. The main body
of ISO9001 is contained in the quality system require-
ments of Section 4.0. There are 20 clauses and the most
related clauses to this research are Clauses 4.5, docu-
ment and data control, and Clauses 5.3, document of the
quality system. The main requirements of the two
clauses are described as follows.
Sub-clause 4.5.1 states ‘The supplier shall establish
and maintain documented procedures to control all
documents and data that relate to the requirements of
the standard.’ Documents and data can be in many
forms of media. Further in Sub-clause 4.5.2 and 4.5.3,
ISO 9001 specifically states the importance of review,
approval, issue, change and document control to ensure
the accurate documents are created, presented and
updated. In sub-clause 5.3.2, focusing discussion is in
the purposes of a quality manual and the required
procedures for making modifications, revisions, or
additions to the content of a quality manual.
1.4. ISO10013
The ISO10013 standard is the guidelines for develop-
ing quality manuals [25]. It provides guidelines for the
development, preparation and control of quality
manuals to reflect documented procedures required by
ISO9000. The ISO10013 includes sections such as:
(a) Documentation of quality systems section, which
describes a typical quality system documentation
hierarchy, what a quality manual and documented
quality system procedure should consist of and the
suggested document structure and format.
(b) Process of preparing a quality manual section, which
states responsibility for preparation, use of refer-
ences and accuracy and completeness of the quality
manual.
(c) Process of quality manual approval, issue and control
section, which prescribes the process of final review
and approval, distribution of the manual, incor-
poration of changes, and document issue and
change control.
(d) The suggested structure of a quality manual or quality
system procedure section, which states that a quality
manual should normally contain the following items:
* title, scope and field of application;
* table of contents;
357
* introductory pages about the organization concerned
and the manual itself;
* the quality policy and objectives of the organization;
* a description of the organizational structure, respon-
sibilities and authorities; and
* a description of the elements of the quality system
and any references to documented quality system
procedures.
This research is organized in several sections. Section
1 provides background information of the research
including XML, ISO9000 and ISO10013. Section 2
proposes the integrated ISO9000 document manage-
ment model. Section 2 also discusses the ISO9000
quality system documents characteristics and docu-
ment/data control requirements. This section’s effort is
helpful for deriving the document management scenario
building, depicted in Section 3. The scenario describes
the concrete sample documents flow case for XML-
enabled document manipulation implementation. Then
in Section 4, we show the implemented examples and
demonstrate XML capabilities and benefits in ISO9000
document management. Finally, Section 5 summarizes
the research results.
2. Integrated ISO9000 document management model
2.1. Document management functions and document/data
requirements
From the description of ISO9000 requirements and
ISO10013 guidelines in Section 1, ISO9000 document
control processes fall into three functional categories,
i.e. (1) document creation/release, (2) change and (3)
access. Each sub-function is further sub-divided into
many activities as depicted in Fig. 1 [4]. Both newly
created and changed documents need to be reviewed and
approved prior to their issue (or release). Released or
issued document must be available and easily accessible
to all authorized parties. From a cycle point of view,
a document can go through various stages namely
document creating/created, reviewing/reviewed, approv-
ing/approved, released, changing/changed, to accessed
as shown in Fig. 2.
To effectively perform the ISO9000-based document
control process, functions including document creation,
approval, review, change and access must be integrated
into one document management system. In the follow-
ing sections, we will show how the XML mechanisms
can enable the integration.
To facilitate the smooth document flows and effective
document management, responsible individuals need
to refer to pertinent documents and data. For example,
when a document such as a design specification goes
into the review stage, a review team list (i.e. a document
358 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370

Document
management

Document
Document Document
create/
change access
release

Identify need & Plan

Create document
document reason for
change security profile

Identify Identify the Identify

review team proposed user
change

Invite Determine
Review
doc. change security
document
review team level

Revise See if user

Review
document has authority
change
to access

Approve Revise & Document

Document edit retrieve
document

Approve
Register
document
document
change

Identify Notify
document doc. change
recipients originator

Issue & Issue &

distribute distribute
document new document

Remove Remove
invalid invalid
document document

Fig. 1. Function view of document management.

type) is needed to identify authorized team members for

document review. When a specific document has been
reviewed/approved and distributed, it will go into the
Change changing stage. A document change originator will
request linkages to the related documents, such as
Create
inspection instructions and operational procedures, to
prepare the change request proposal for change review.
Access Manage Table 2 summarizes the document and data require-
ments aligning with the ISO9001 document management
Review/ functions [4].
Approve
Release
2.2. Two major document types

From Table 2, the documents and data requirements

Fig. 2. Document management life cycle.
can be classified into two major types. The first type is
the ISO9000 quality-related documents, which include
four major levels as shown in Fig. 3.
 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370 359

Table 2
Documents and data requirements for ISO 9001 based document control

Related functions (flow) Document and data requirements Related ISO9001 clauses

Document create and issue Quality system related draft documents (templates), 4.5.2
such as procedures, work instructions, prepared to be reviewed
Review team list 4.5.2
Reviewers’ comments 4.5.2
Master list 4.5.2
Distribution list 4.5.2
Released document 4.5.2

Document change control Change request form 4.5.3, 5.3.2.3

Documents related to change 4.5.3
Review team list 4.5.3, 5.3.2.3
Reviewers’ comments and instructions 4.5.3, 5.3.2.3
Changed document to be approved 4.5.3, 5.3.2.3
History of document change 4.5.3, 5.3.2.3
Distribution list 4.5.3, 5.3.2.3
New document version 4.5.3, 5.3.2.3
Master list 4.5.3, 5.3.2.3

Document access Security levels lists 4.5.1, 4.5.2

Retrieved document 4.5.2, 4.5.3

* Level 4: Quality records and forms, provide the

evidence (records or proofs) of what have been
Level 1: accomplished to comply with the quality system
Quality established by the upper three levels, such as design
manual
review and design verification.
Level 2: The second document type is for maintaining the
Procedures
integrity of ISO9000 compliant document control
system, which contains information for proper docu-
Level 3:
Work ment control and management such as master list,
instructions change history, review team list, and distribution list.

Level 2: 2.3. ISO9000 quality system documents characteristics

Quality
records
Fig. 3. Four-level quality system documentation structure.
* Level 1: Quality manual, which states the quality
policy and describes the quality system in accordance
with the policy [25]. It also depicts how a company
complies with each element of the ISO9000 standard.
* Level 2: Operating procedures. Typically the proce-
dures describe how the management system functions
and demonstrate the linkages and interactions
between functions/departments [24]. They often
include detailed business processes, related activities,
as well as management and personnel’s responsibil-
ities and authorities with respect to specific activities
[25,24].
* Level 3: Work instructions, which provide the detailed
information (step-by-step instructions) on how to
perform a particular task.
The ISO9000 quality system documents have the
following major characteristics:
1. A four-tiered structure of documentation and the
traceability of documents.
Quality system documentation is commonly de-
scribed in a four-level hierarchical structure as shown
in Fig. 3 [24,26–28]. Within the structure, documents
are cascaded from higher levels to lower levels. When
a version or contents of a document change at a
parent level, it will effect the changes of the children
levels, hence document control should provide
change traceability from one level to the other level.
2. Horizontal process and document linkages—from
customer, seller to supplier.
A business process is a series of enterprise tasks,
undertaken for the purpose of creating products or
services by members of VE. The flow of documents
through the entire business processes must be cross-
referenced and linked to validate the process quality.
360 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370
For example, the design specification document must
flow from customer requirements to design input,
design input review, and then to the design stage. At
the ‘‘design input’’ stage, customer requirements are
transformed into design specification. At the design
input review stage, the specification is compared to
any available contractual agreements [23]. At the
design stage, the design activities must refer to and
comply with the specified document.
3. Linkage between documents and product data.
The product world is replete with documents, from
requirements through specifications to user manuals
[29]. These documents both act as input to the
product development processes (most product de-
signs are driven by some kind of specification or
requirements document) and are output as well.
When a product design change is requested or
product quality issues are raised, all documents
related to the product must be easily retrieved by
the related personnel. For example, when you make
design changes to a mouse, you may need to locate
and update documents that are linked to or affected
by the change. It is quite often that just changing a
part number may cause dozens of existing documents
to be updated. Hence, there is a close linkage between
documents and product data.
4. Documents have various statuses and versions.
As a document is developed, it passes through
different product life-cycle stages with specific status,
e.g., reviewed, approved, distributed or obsolete.
Finding the right document with the right version
and status is extremely critical, because if members
of an organization misuse the document version,
product quality can be greatly affected.
5. There is a quasi-standard structure and format of the
ISO9000 quality documentation.
ISO10013 suggests a structured quality manual and
quality system procedure including three segments
shown in Table 3. The segments are separated by double
lines in the table. The first segment consists of the
background information such as organization name,
title/subject, document number, page, revision and
approved by. The second segment is the body of
the manual including quality policy, purposes and
scopes of application, responsibility, element descrip-
tion of the quality system and referenced documents/
records. The third segment is the final remarks or
notes. The suggested structure help to identify the
ISO9000 documents’ objects and define the document
elements.
Understanding these characteristics help us define
XML schema or tags that conform to the structure and
constraints of quality system documentation. Further-
more, it is also helpful for developer to design an
ISO9000 compliant document management system.
Table 3
The ISO10013 suggested structure for a quality manual
Organization Title/subject Document No. Page
Unit issuing Revision Approved by Effective date
Quality policy
Purposes and scopes
Responsibility
Actions and methods to achieve quality system element requirement
Referenced documents
Records
Notes
3. A document management scenario
A scenario is presented for the design and implemen-
tation of an XML-enabled ISO9000 document manage-
ment system. This scenario describes to-be-implemented
activities, relationship between involved parties and
the related documents. In the scenario, there are several
actors, such as document creator, document change
originator and document user, involved
in the quality process. There are also several key
activities to be defined, e.g., review document,
request related documents and reuse parts of the
documents. Further, there is the definition of the activity
sequences and linkages among the actors. Finally,
several sample documents (types) for the implementa-
tion are depicted.
The scenario will cover the main functions of
ISO9000 document management, namely document
creation, document review/approval and document
access as described in Section 2. Also the docu-
ments selected for the scenario and the implementation
will cover two major types, i.e. the ISO9000 quality-
related documents type and the document control
related type. The documents selected for the scenario
include:
* Master quality system documentation list, which is a
directory from which users can easily locate the
documents they want.
* Quality manual, which defines an outline structure of
a company’s quality system and refers to documented
quality system procedures such as the design control
procedure.
* Quality system documentation review (approval) form.
* Design control procedure, which often need to refer
to other related documents such as specification
documents.
* Design specification master document, which serves as
a directory and contains pertinent specification
information such as acceptance criteria, product
specifications and regulatory requirements [23].
The hierarchical structure relationship of these sample
documents is shown in Fig. 4. Understanding the
 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370
Quality Manual
5 4
Design Specification's 1 Design Control
Master Document
Specifications
Document
Fig. 4. The sample documents hierarchical relationship.
relationship would be helpful to comprehend the
scenario’s activities and XML schema definition.
The scenario is described in details as follows.
1. When the scheduled next review date recorded on the
master list is due, the authorized reviewers link from
the master list to the documentation review form for
reviewing. Besides, related documents should be
made available for reference during the reviewing,
hence the reviewers refer back to the master list to
locate the pertinent documents and link to quality
manual and design control procedures. In addition,
the design control procedure has a related specifica-
tion defined on the design specification master
document. Hence, the reviewers do associative links
[30] from design control procedures to the design
specification master document.
2. Document creators or users need to compile or view a
consolidated document from different related source
documents components (The source documents may
come from different document levels). For example,
they may want to query and then synthesize the
components of master document list and quality
manual into a new document. In another situation,
they may want to combine the components of master
document list and design control procedure into a
new document.
3. A document has been approved by an authorized
person and the new status of the document has been
entered in the blank fields of a document approval
form. The fields’ contents are fetched and reused to
append into the bottom row of the quality manual to
record the new status.
361
Master (Quality System) Document List
2 1 3
1 Documentation Documentation
Review Form Approval Form
1
Procedure
4. Document users want to view the details of the released
new version design control procedures as depicted in
the top-level master document list. Hence, they
hierarchically link from the document lists to their
children document, i.e. the design control procedures.
5. A document change is requested, the document
control administrator tracks the document revision
logs as described in the revision history of the quality
manuals to see the details of what the document had
been changed and to evaluate the proposed change
and rationales behind the change.
6. A design specification (a child document) is changed
or updated, a new revision status to the parent
document (the design specification’s master docu-
ment) should reflect that change. Hence, a document
control administrator enters or updates the required
items of the design specification’s master documents
to reflect these changes.
In the following section, XML/XSL technologies are
applied for the implementation of the scenario.
4. Implementation
4.1. Implementation environment and related
technologies
The implementation environments and related tech-
nologies including XML and XSL are shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5 illustrates how the various technologies and
standards are adopted for implementation. In the
document modeling and analysis phase, understanding
362 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370

ISO9000
XML Documents
Document
Schema Control
Structure
Requirements
& Data types

Validation Guiding

ISO9000 Contents Displaying Customized

Formatting & Querying
Documents XML XSL Web Pages
Requirements

Guiding

Users'
Application
Integration
Needs

Documents modeling and analysis

Design and implementation

Fig. 5. Prototype developing processes and implementation environment

the structure and constraints of documents are the Table 4

key issues. Hence, performing documents analysis and A sample quality manual
examining documents structures are essential before Organization Title/subject Document Page
XML document and schema definition. Documents ABC Inc. Document No. QM.001 1/2
analysis and structures examination identify objects (or control
Unit issuing Revision Approved by Effective date
features) in a document and often ask the following Document No. 4 Pcr 230 11/02/97
questions for every object [31]: control center
Quality policy
* Does the object always appear in a document? Purposes and scopes
* Does the object only appear once? Responsibility
* Where does it appear?
Actions
* Does it deconstruct into smaller objects? Review and approval
Re-issuing
Table 4 is an example quality manual for document
analysis and modeling. To analyze and answer the above Referenced documents
Document review form
questions, the fundamental data elements of the quality Master list
manual are identified first. Then, the relationships Document approval
among the elements are established. The analytical form
results are shown in Table 5. And Fig. 6 shows the
equivalent document tree for the sample manual. Records
Document review
In the design and implementation phase, XSL is a meeting memos
language for creating style sheets that describe how
XML data is to be presented to the users [15]. It is Notes
mainly used to customize the format that users want
the document and the components of document to be
 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370 363

displayed and put the content (data) into the XML 1. Linking capability. Cross-referencing to related docu-
format. The XML and XSL capabilities used for the ments and share with authorized members.
document management implementation in this study are 2. Customized capability. Customized document’s for-
described below. mats and presentation styles for different users. For
example, documents (or some sections of documents)
Table 5 can be adapted for specific reasons or security issues,
Elements and element relationships of the sample quality manual which deliver just the information in the particular
format that users need.
Quality Background General Organization
manual information information
3. Searching and querying capabilities. Searching and
Title querying through the documents to find the exact
Document No. related document content to match keywords or
Page specified criteria.
Unit issuing 4. Information reusing and re-grouping capability. A
Revision history Revision
quality manual may be a direct compilation
Approved by or grouping of other documents [25]. By using
Effective date XML-based documents, users can reuse and re-
group parts of the documents to compile another
Body Quality policy documents.
Purposes
Responsibility
Actions
Referenced documents 4.2. Implementation examples
Records
In this section, we will demonstrate several imple-
Notes
mented examples that show how the key XML/XSL

Quality
Manual

Background
Body Notes
Information

General Revision Quality

Note
Information History Policy

Organization Revision Purposes Note

Approved
Title Responsibility
By

Document Effective
Actions
No. Date

Referenced
Page
documents

Unit Issuing Records

Record

Record

Fig. 6. Document tree for the sample quality manual.

364 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370
capabilities can be combined to manipulate the XML
documents and enable the scenario activities. The
activities are related to the key functions of ISO9000
document management, namely documents creation,
documents review, approval, change and access,
which will be discussed in the next section. The
sequences of the examples demonstrated are correspon-
dent with the described sequences of the scenario as
described above. The examples are listed and demon-
strated as follows:
1. The first example demonstrates effective management
of multiple document cross-references.
2. The second example is to synthesize components of
several document sources and customize them into a
new document.
3. The third example is to enable retrieving and reusing
of existing documents.
4. The fourth example is hierarchically linking (or
searching) related information.
5. The fifth example is to track document revision
history effectively.
6. The final example is to customize a document
template for document creating/editing.
The above examples are to demonstrate the XML/
XSL combined capabilities to effectively manipulate the
main functions of the document management life cycle
with various stages, e.g., document creating, reviewing,
approving, changing, and querying. Document cross-
referencing (in Example 1) is an essential activity for
most of the stages of the life cycle. Document
synthesizing and customizing (in Example 2) is
often needed in creating stage. The effective retriev-
ing and reusing current documents (in Example 3)
facilitate document creating, changing and approv-
ing stages. When changing a document, the related
children documents must also be changed. Hence, it is
useful to have hierarchically linked documents, as
demonstrated in Example 4. The fifth example in
revision tracking is to show the tracking of a complete
document history, which is an essential activity for
document changing and approval. The customizing
template (shown in Example 6) can easily reduce the
document creating efforts.
4.2.1. Example 1: Effective management of multiple
document cross-references
As described in Section 2, the ISO9000 documents
contain various types of relationships between docu-
ments or elements within documents. Hence, it is
essential to have an effective multiple documents
cross-reference (or link) management. There are
three kinds of links, namely, structural links, associ-
ative links and referential links [30]. The link taxo-
nomy is classified depending on whether the type of
information relationships being represented is based on
the organization or the content of the information
space. When documents have a hierarchical structure, it
is a structural link. Associative links is cross-referencing
within document(s), which based on contents of docu-
ment components without a specific structure. Refer-
ential links provides a link between an item of
information and an elaboration or explanation of that
information.
In this example we show how XML-based documents
can be effectively cross-referenced and make informa-
tion link in a useful way as shown in Fig. 7.
4.2.2. Example 2: Document synthesizing from
components of document sources
Document creators or users often need to compile or
re-view a consolidated information from different
document sources. In this example, we first use
document type (which is a tag in the XML documents)
as search keyword. The keywords are the document
types of quality manual and design control procedure.
Then, the queried results (i.e. the document components
that match with the keywords) are synthesized and
customized with appropriate stylesheets into XML web
pages
4.2.3. Example 3: Retrieve and reuse existing documents
The reuse of existing documents and references can
significantly shorten the quality related documents
development time. ISO9000 depicts that:
1. To approval a (newly created) document, the
designated approvers shall have access to pertinent
background information to make a decision.
2. Once a document has been approved, the document
must be registered, a unique document number is
assigned and the document (status) is placed on the
master list.
The implemented example addresses these two re-
quirements effectively as shown in Fig. 8. Firstly, the
designated approvers query the related background
information, i.e. the waiting to be approved document
revision status, on which the approval decision is based.
Secondly, once the document is approved and the
document new status is entered in the blank fields of
the approval form, the fields’ contents are fetched and
reused to append them into the bottom row of the
quality manual.
4.2.4. Example 4: Hierarchically linking related
documents
The hierarchical link is the hyper-link to children
elements or documents. ISO9000 quality system
 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370 365

Fig. 7. Multiple kinds of document cross-referencing.

documentation often exhibits a four-level structure as document users. The implemented example is shown in
described in Section 2. ISO9000 requires this kind of Fig. 9. In this example, the master documentation list is
hierarchical collection of procedural documents. They the parent document and the design control procedure is
must be hierarchically linked and easily accessible by one of its children documents.
366 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370
Fig. 8. Retrieving and reusing existing information.
4.2.5. Example 5: Track document revision history
effectively
Documents change over time, and they have a history.
It is often necessary to access and track the revision
history of a document. In this example, a complete
document history showing all the revisions or changes
that have taken place, who has authorized the changes
and what specific revision were made to each document.
Each revision can be further hierarchically linked to see
its details. By defining XML tags or meta data about
document properly, one can catalog and track docu-
ments based on mutual understanding semantics. Thus,
users can track document revision history by organiza-
tion issuing, document title/type, document number,
approver or revision types (add, delete or change)
effectively.
4.2.6. Example 6: Customizing a document template for
document creating/editing
A document template includes standard entries
for consistency and ease of document creation [32]. It
is a way to help standardize the creation process and
safeguard against the omission of important and
mandatory information. Thus, decrease the likeli-
hood of invalid documents being submitted [9,32–34].
For example, a customized design specification’s
master document template includes items such as
project number and name, document version number
and date of last revision, specifications, accep-
tance criteria, government standards and regu-
latory requirements [23] as shown in Fig. 10. The
information content and presentation style of the
document template must suit various needs and
preferences.
5. Discussion
This section discusses why the XML/XSL mechan-
isms or capabilities are useful for the imple-
mented examples. It also discusses how these examples
can be integrated into a system to fulfill the ISO9000
document control requirements. The discussion is
shown in Table 6 and Fig. 11. Table 6 summarizes the
XML/XSL capabilities applying in implemented exam-
ples. All examples demonstrate main functions of the
ISO9000 document management (e.g., document crea-
tion, review, approval, change and access). The im-
plemented examples do not affiliate with islands of
independent activities. They are integrated into a system
to satisfy ISO9000 document control requirements and
to enable document management functions as shown in
Fig. 11.
 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370 367

Fig. 9. Hierarchically link related documents.

6. Conclusions knowledge more intelligently. The study demonstrates

This research develops an XML-based ISO9000
electronic document management prototype and
demonstrates the mechanisms to facilitate docu-
ment creation, editing, exchange, and access in the
context of ISO9000 document management. By
applying the XML concept in document manage-
ment and with XSL technologies, the implemented
system will facilitate companies to create, access,
distribute and reuse document information and manage
that combinations of basic XML/XSL capabilities
(customizing, linking, querying, information reusing)
can support various ISO9000 compliant functions,
streamline the business processes, and reengineer
information integration through business value chain.
The research results initiate these efforts in order to
promote more research activities that can leverage
XML capabilities to improve electronic document
flow and document management among extended
enterprises.
368 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370

Fig. 10. Customized document template.

XML
documents
repository

Queried Queried Queried

related related related
documents documents documents

XML document document released

reviewers' approved
document waiting for waiting for XML
comments document
templates review approving document

revision
reviewed
history
documents
logs

Customize Query Revision Tracking Hierarchical Link

(example 6) (example 2) (example 5) (example 4)

Synthesize Cross Reference Fetch & Reuse Revision Tracking

(example 2) (example 1) (example 3) (example 5)

Reuse Cross Reference Reuse

(example 3) (example 1) (example 3)

Cross Reference Cross Reference

(example 1) (example 1)

Document Document Document Document

Creation Review Approval Change

Fig. 11. Document flow and mechanisms for integration of document creation, review, approval and change.
 Y.-H. Yao et al. / Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 19 (2003) 355–370 369

Table 6
Usefulness of XML/XSL capabilities and mechanisms for the implemented examples

Examples Useful for related document Why XML/XSL are useful in the example implementation
management functions

1. Cross-referencing Useful for most of the Based on the document tree structures, one can easily create a hyperlink
main functions table of contents for cross-referencing.

2. Synthesizing Document creation XML tags and meta data such as document title, document type and document
author, facilitate querying, cataloging, displaying and then combining
only those relevant information into a new document.
Document review

3. Reusing Document creating By defining XML document properly, users can search based on content or
meta data of the documents and then reusing and rearranging the contents
of what the user want for compiling a new document.
Document change
Document approve

4. Hierarchically Document change XML tags and document tree structures provide an inherent hierarchical link
linking (searching) between documents and enable searching the hierarchical document
linkage (linkage to the whole document or elements within a document).
Document accessing

5. Tracking Document change With XSL and by defining XML tags or meta data about document properly,
it is easy to track a complete document history and show all the revisions or
changes that have taken place. It is also possible to show only the relevant
latest revision or changes.
Document approve

6. Customizing Document creating Because, there is a quasi-standard structure and format of the ISO9000
document templates quality documentation, it is easy to define the XML document structure. Thus,
with XSL it is easily to provide the XML documents’ templates and then
customized them for document preparation.

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