Glossary · Operator documentation
Operating manual section
Also known as: Operating manual extract, Excerpt from the operating manual
German: Auszug aus der Betriebsanleitung
In company practice, an operating manual section is an extract of the manufacturer's operating manual — typically start-up, shutdown, operating limits and fault messages — that an operator hands to its employees for daily operation, often as their Betriebsanweisung.
- Technical documentation
- Compliance
- German source term
In one sentence
An operating manual section is an extract of the manufacturer's manual handed to operators for daily use — a Betriebsanweisung only if it says enough.
Example
A packaging plant laminates four pages of the filler's operating manual — start, stop, format change and alarm list — and posts them at the machine; the risk assessment shows the forklift traffic next to the filler is not covered, so a Betriebsanweisung is still needed.
How it applies
- Company practice: Operators often shorten the manufacturer's operating manual to the pages used every day and call the result a Betriebsanweisung. The practice is legitimate as a reading aid.
- Legal limit: § 12(2) BetrSichV allows the employer to provide the instructions supplied with the work equipment instead of a Betriebsanweisung only if they contain information equivalent to a Betriebsanweisung. An extract does so only where it still covers the hazards, protective measures, rules of conduct and the behavior in case of faults and accidents for the actual workplace. Hazards of the working environment — neighboring equipment, traffic routes, site rules — are rarely in the manufacturer's manual.
- Integrity of safety information: An extract must not cut warnings off from the steps they belong to; the manufacturer's information for use remains the reference and must stay available.
- Version control: When the manufacturer updates the manual, the extract has to follow; treat it as a controlled document.
Operating manual section vs. Betriebsanweisung
The extract is the manufacturer's content, selected by the operator. The Betriebsanweisung is the employer's own instruction, based on its risk assessment of the workplace. The first can be part of the second, but it does not replace it by being renamed.