Information Driven Asset Performance At ACHEMA 2015 - Part 2

Author photo: Valentijn de Leeuw
ByValentijn de Leeuw
Category:
Industry Trends

​At this year's ACHEMA trade show, the world's largest and most important fair for the process, the industry associations ZVEI and NAMUR, in collaboration with ARC Advisory Group, organized a series of presentations and panel discussions which were open to the general public.  In this blog we introduce you to the second part of the discussion on: "Information driven asset performance in the operate and maintain phases of the asset life cycle".

Experts participating in the discussion were Peter Spelberg-Jahn, product manager for Siemens COMOS,  Milo Scheeren, CPO of BlueCielo ECM solutions, Mike Brooks, CEO of Mtell, and Yosuke Ishii, project manager mobile solutions at Yokogawa.

Predicting Asset Performance Degradation
Mike Brooks of Mtell explained how a recent analytics solution can predict performance degradation of equipment, weeks in advance, using weak signals that people would not have picked up on.  In his experience, until problems are noticed some damage has already occurred, and the time available to apply maintenance is much shorter, leaving little option for scheduling of both maintenance and operational activities.  The solution can also prescribe how to maintain equipment, or adapt processes to avoid deterioration.  He also reported cases where clients or prospects did not trust the first detection of an anomaly causing damage or replacement of the equipment.  Mike used the term "process abuse" to indicate how the process can inadvertently be pushed for performance reasons without understanding that this can shorten the asset longevity.

Processes need to be changed to avoid damage occurring over and over again, Mike insisted.  He reported a case where the use of the software reduced downtime by over 72 percent, up to 94 percent. A transportation company applied the solution, and gained $10M in 3 months.  By extending the scope, the benefits amounted to $200M in two years.

Evolving Automation Pyramid
Yosuke Ishii of Yokogawa explained how the automation pyramid is changing with new production methodologies such as modularization and IoT applications.  More high-level data, as well as more low-level data, create opportunities.  Yosuke-san mentioned that nine use cases have been identified by Yokogawa, most to be found in mobile maintenance solutions.  Customers have shown interest in combining augmented reality and mobile solutions to access equipment data, ERP data, and maintenance management information at the location of the equipment, thus helping to connect organizational sites.  Three cases have been implemented to date, one of which has resulted in proven benefits of €20 to 50 k per annum.

In our recent Insight and other Asset Lifecycle Management publications we provide practical recommendations for owner-operators, engineering procurement and construction companies (EPC's) and other stakeholders, to optimize the total value of ownership or profitability.

Keywords: Asset Lifecycle Management, ACHEMA, ALM, predictive analytics, handheld, augmented reality, ARC Advisor Group.

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