Manufacturer's Literature

A guide to assist Manufacturers develop Technical Documents for use by Architects and Engineers

Master Specifications and Product Descriptions

Manufacturer's documentation produced by Digicon are designed to specifically meet the needs of the architectural and engineering community (design professionals, specifiers).  They do this by delivering clear, accurate product information (Product Description), and by offering a tool useful for developing a project specification based on that product (Master Specification).

These two associated documents each have a specific purpose, and their content must only reflect this purpose.  To stray invites danger that the documents become too disorganized or watered-down, and pertinent information becomes too difficult to locate.

The Product Description is useful when a design professional is in the product selection process, or when a selection has been made and a specifier is in the project specification process.  Neither of these documents should contain marketing (sales pitch terminology, since they will only serve to obscure the information necessary to perform these two tasks.

Product Descriptions

This document describes a product in technical terms, enabling a manufacturer to communicate detailed technical product information to consultants/specifiers in a clear, unambiguous way.

The Product Description describes a product, its intended uses, its properties and characteristics, its quality level, its standards and test conformance, and its limitations.  It is a technical summary of product attributes that are presented in a summarized form, without true sales message.

Purpose:  The Product Description enables a consultant/specifier to assess and accept a product for their project.  The Product Description also serves as a reference to the specifier, who must generate a project specification for construction.

When consultants accept any product for use on a project, they are accepting legal liability for that product's "suitability for purpose".  For that reason, they require clear and accurate technical product information.  This form of information presentation is required by consultants/specifiers in order to decide if it is suitable for their project.

Content Organization:  CSC ProductFormat, a standard for organizing information in a product data sheet which parallels the "3-part" organization used by the specifying community (known generically as the CSC/CSI 3-part format).

By developing technical information which parallels the standard format for specifications, consultants/specifiers searching for a specific attribute will know exactly where to look within the Product Description.  In simple terms, this parallel format of presenting product data simplifies the product selection and specification section development processes.

Master Specification Section (a CSC/CSI formatted 3-part specification section)

A specification section is a specific contractually binding document which must be drafted by a design professional - consultant or specifier, and its purpose is to identify (by specifying) product requirements that a contractor must fulfill in a construction project.  There are a number of aspects here which must be addressed during the development of a master (template) specification on behalf of a manufacturer.

Download a White Paper (PDF) Document

To view a PDF document describing the purpose and value of developing technical data sheets and proprietary (branded) master specifications, download our white paper.