Assembling, operating, and maintaining critical pieces of machinery are a daily responsibility of maintenance mechanics in the military. Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs), in particular, are a perfect example of military land/water machinery that must be constantly maintained in to avoid potentially serious or fatal incidents. The military technical documents, used for assembly, operations, and maintenance of these multi-ton beasts, are typically static paper drawings. Normally kept in a three-ring binder, the documents are prone to get crumpled, dirty or even lost making life difficult on the mechanics. Needless to say, navigating away from clumsy, static, paper documents towards an electronic system of managing and accessing their technical documents is a welcome change.

To many people, the phrase “Some assembly required” is the kiss of death when purchasing something. If you have bought anything from IKEA you understand how frustrating it can be to put together a dresser or a coffee table using little more than a wrench and a set of visual instructions. In most cases there is not a ton of pressure riding on the person who is assembling IKEA furniture, but what if you had to assemble, or operate, or maintain a critical piece of machinery that was responsible not only for the success of your job, but for the lives of your coworkers. This is the case for operations and maintenance mechanics in the military.