EDMS was established at CERN in the 90s with the goal of providing electronic data management capabilities in the scope of the Large Hadron Collider project. It allows to store, manage, organize and distribute large amounts of engineering information, covering a wide spectrum of fields. In addition to system functionality, EDMS service offers support for the development and the formalization of corresponding methodologies and procedures.
At CERN, the project lifecycles can last between 25 and 40 years. Therefore, it is essential to maintain controlled quality documentation. It often happens that one generation of engineers and scientists builds the machine while the succeeding generation operates and maintains it. Throughout this time the information related to the design, construction and maintenance of the different components must be available and accessible, not only to the engineers and technicians, but also to the manufacturers providing the equipment, located in different parts of the world. This is what EDMS is there for: supporting the full lifecycle of the collider, from its conception, through design, manufacturing and installation, up to maintenance and decommissioning.
EDMS gives the means to the project teams to ensure that the data and documentation for projects and facilities are organized, verified and remain retrievable on a long-term basis.
The CERN EDMS is a compound system based on two commercial products; the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system Agile e6 from Oracle and the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system Infor EAM from Infor. These systems have been integrated at CERN where also a set of closely linked web applications have been developed on top to provide simplified access to technical data and to allow seamless navigation of information independently of underlying systems and databases.
The service is currently provided free of charge and is available to any CERN unit and to any experiment approved by the CERN Scientific Policy Committee. In addition to this, external collaborations with other academic and research institutions have been set up thus making the CERN-developed part of the system available for non-commercial use.
More information about the CERN Engineering Data Management Service, the Service itself, public presentations and publications can be found in the EDMS Service structure in the CERN EDMS.
Go to EDMS