Integration blurs the line
27 Mar 2007
Asset management increasingly requires leveraging services and systems for monitoring and management of process facilities, which are now available at all levels of the activity. The key enabling technologies include intelligent instrumentation, condition monitoring of rotating machinery and managing the maintenance workflow and prioritisation.
"Companies are starting to collect data in an integrated way, for instance on-line machinery health monitoring data are increasingly now in the same system as on-line process measurements used for control," explains Prof Nina Thornhill of the department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at University College London (UCL). "Also the data are finding uses beyond the control room and being turned into actionable information for decision making."
Thornhill was reviewing a recent meeting, Should It Stay or Should it Go? Managing and Monitoring of Process Assets, held at UCL. She said: "The overall picture is a blurring of the lines between the control room, maintenance activity and business activities. Sending of alerts to the right people, for example in the control room or maintenance departments, with correct prioritisation is a challenge."
Best practice requires a means for collecting evidence of costs avoided, according to the UCL expert. "When this is not done, a poor asset manager who is always busy dealing with problems looks more productive than a good manager who successfully avoids problems ever developing. Managers should be rewarded for not having crises."
The meeting highlighted some novel concepts, including management of human assets through the empowerment of operators, and capturing the knowledge of operators. It also confirmed trends towards more and better-integrated data being turned into business decisions with the aid of process knowledge.
Wireless signaling, for example, is making more on-line data from machinery available and the cost of connection is much reduced. This will drive a trend towards more on-line monitoring and e-maintenance, such as electronic workflows, messaging and prioritisation.
In one particularly relevant presentation, Chris Morse of Honeywell Process Solutions reviewed how equipment performance relates to many aspects of the way the process is operated and controlled, including management of operating limits ( see chart above) and maintenance work practices.
The UCL event was organised by the Process Management and Control subject group of the IChemE and supported by the Institute of Asset Management. Process Engineering will feature further details in the coming weeks.
"Companies are starting to collect data in an integrated way, for instance on-line machinery health monitoring data are increasingly now in the same system as on-line process measurements used for control," explains Prof Nina Thornhill of the department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at University College London (UCL). "Also the data are finding uses beyond the control room and being turned into actionable information for decision making."
Thornhill was reviewing a recent meeting, Should It Stay or Should it Go? Managing and Monitoring of Process Assets, held at UCL. She said: "The overall picture is a blurring of the lines between the control room, maintenance activity and business activities. Sending of alerts to the right people, for example in the control room or maintenance departments, with correct prioritisation is a challenge."
Best practice requires a means for collecting evidence of costs avoided, according to the UCL expert. "When this is not done, a poor asset manager who is always busy dealing with problems looks more productive than a good manager who successfully avoids problems ever developing. Managers should be rewarded for not having crises."
The meeting highlighted some novel concepts, including management of human assets through the empowerment of operators, and capturing the knowledge of operators. It also confirmed trends towards more and better-integrated data being turned into business decisions with the aid of process knowledge.
Wireless signaling, for example, is making more on-line data from machinery available and the cost of connection is much reduced. This will drive a trend towards more on-line monitoring and e-maintenance, such as electronic workflows, messaging and prioritisation.
In one particularly relevant presentation, Chris Morse of Honeywell Process Solutions reviewed how equipment performance relates to many aspects of the way the process is operated and controlled, including management of operating limits ( see chart above) and maintenance work practices.
The UCL event was organised by the Process Management and Control subject group of the IChemE and supported by the Institute of Asset Management. Process Engineering will feature further details in the coming weeks.
