Jack Holstein founded Task Support Technology in 1994 to address a major need for improved aftersales support in the industrial equipment market. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and received training in advanced training theories through his first professional position in the U.S. Air Force. He was one of the pioneers in Programmed Instruction in the USAF and at the American Airlines Flight Academy.

He managed the development of the A300 Airbus and Concorde (1972-1974) and was a co-founder of Communication Learning Systems, which is now the Instruction System Division of FlightSafety.

As industry was not ready for this learning technology in the early 70's, he spent the next 16 years selling industrial process equipment. While working as a manufacturer's representative selling industrial heat process systems, it became obvious to him that very few companies were committed to providing technical documentation that communicated effectively with those performing the technical tasks.

Later, as a National Sales/Service Manager, Jack Holstein lived the experience of going from a 10% market share to over 75% in four years due to a commitment to aftersales support effort. It should be noted that the company did not advertise during this period while competitors did. In fact, customers indicated that aftersales support was the reason for their success.

When personal computer technology arrived, it became obvious that interactive audio-visual media used in airline training in the 1970’s was now affordable for industry applications. TST finally became a reality in 1994 with motivation to improve productivity in the many industrial application which previously could not afford this technology. Furthermore, TST was motivated to deliver task guidance directly to the job site, thus reducing the need to memorize this key information in formal training. This task guidance media which is delivered to the job site by computer is referred to as an Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) or an interactive technical manual.

Task Support Technology has very special capability to communicate effectively with installation technicians, equipment operators, electronic technicians, mechanics, and fault isolation specialists. Some companies have the luxury of using very experienced field service technicians who know how to communicate complex concepts with their own kind to write and produce technical documentation. Other companies use engineering personnel who understand the technical concepts write and produce documentation to a technical audience they do not know well. TST has the technical capability to extract the necessary task guidance information from raw engineering data and interviews so that it can be communicated to the target audience. We use the process of Instruction System Design (ISD) to assure the proper content is selected and to be sure it is communicated effectively to the target audience; see the ISD tab for more information about TST’s approach to ISD.

Most manuals or training media use ladder-type wiring diagrams to document electrical circuits and symbol-based schematics to document hydraulic or pneumatic systems. TST appears to be the only vendor developing alternative graphics that make it possible for lay personnel to more easily understand system function; these very special alternative system function diagrams complement standard engineering schematics. Order the sample CD-ROM to experience the ease of understanding TST’s approach to communicating complex system functions.