Remote control maintenance management

Machines are required to operate within certain parameter tolerances, such as temperature, noise, vibration, flow rate and output. In the past, workers needed to be present to monitor these conditions, but much of this can now be remotely monitored from a SCADA or DCS system.

Computerised maintenance management has come a long way in the last 20 years since the days of mid-range minicomputers like Digital Equipment Vax, Norsk Data and IBM System 36, which would have multiple user terminals attached to them. 

The software was hardware dependent and therefore had to be rewritten for each machine. Then along came Microso SQL, which allowed software vendors to write an application once to run on various platforms as long as there is an SQL database running.

John Roberts, director at Idhammar Systems, has seen two areas of improvements over the last two decades: functional and technical. “The advent of SQL, common communications and data sharing has made integration with other systems much easier,” he says.

Computerised maintenance management has come a long way in the last 20 years since the days of mid-range minicomputers

“Being able to link up with handheld devices to pass data to and from shop floor data collection systems to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems has made things a lot easier for maintenance professionals. Reporting has increased enormously, particularly with graphics methods compared to 30 years ago, as well as speed of response and data-holding capacity. Today software can run on distributed servers and even the cloud.”

Rockwood Pigments processes liquid, powder, and granulated forms of iron oxide colour pigments, and supplies a range of natural and synthetic inorganic pigments and automated pigment-handling systems from its plant at Kidsgrove in Stoke-on-Trent.

Historically the site relied on handwritten requests and a spreadsheet for work orders and requisitions that were passed to the engineers, making it almost impossible to keep an accurate record of all maintenance work taking place around the site.

Frequent discrepancies

This caused frequent discrepancies, meaning that response to breakdown was often delayed and sometimes even missed. The company decided to move from a reactive to a preventive maintenance approach.

Demonstrating regulatory compliance was also a key driver for purchasing a computerised Maintenance Management System (MMS).

Rockwood engineering team leader Peter Richardson says: “We could provide records and most of the evidence needed for the auditors, but finding it quickly was proving difficult. We needed to be able to prove times and dates on maintenance works, so we had to commit to a better way of working in the form of Idhammar’s MMS software. The data input process provided the perfect opportunity to clean up our records. We had around 3,000 suppliers on record, half of which were out of date and several listed for machines we did not even use anymore.”

It was the same with the engineering spares. “Just eliminating outdated files has improved the efficiency of our asset management. Process controllers are now able to take advantage of the software’s reporting and analysis tools which allows them to cross checkdata and report on the  findings.”

Manually checking and measuring process parameters like temperature, humidity or pressure has been greatly improved by wireless communications used to relay monitoring data to a central hub.

Testo marketing manager Richard Edmondson argues that wired and wireless sensor technology has cut down on operations and maintenance costs by avoiding the need to have workers manually check these parameters.

“It is also a lot more secure and reliable, with a collection of sensors and probes scattered around a plant area being relayed by Ethernet or wireless connection,” he adds.

Asset registers

Computerised maintenance management works most effectively if it is coupled to asset management and accounting. In the context of process plant, assets of a similar nature can be grouped together, like pumps that need servicing or external bearings that may need regular lubrication.

“By compartmentalising assets into maintenance groups, standard job frequencies may be scheduled,” says Real Asset Management sales consultant Chris Noller.

This maintenance asset register not only allows day-to-day work to be planned more efficiently, says Noller, but also gives plant engineers the opportunity to investigate which machines are the worst performing in terms of breakdown, repair and replacement.

“Some equipment is expensive and designed to allow easy replacement of failed components, while other equipment may be less reliable or well designed,” he adds.

“You are looking for a system to collate costs over a period of time so that you can take a step back and analyse the problem.”

Barnsley-based Monckton Coke and Chemical Company (MCCC) used software from Real Asset Management to manage and maintain its heavy duty processing equipment.

The South Yorkshire-based plant produces in excess of 200,000 tonnes per annum, heating coal to 1280°C to generate up to 11 megawatts of electricity per hour, enough to run a self-sufficient operation and provide more than 1,000 homes with power annually.

“We wanted a comprehensive asset register which could track planned maintenance requirements and log faults as they occurred,” says MCCC engineering manager Mick Collins.

“We are currently in the process of breaking our 700-strong asset register down into smaller components which could potentially increase the register fivefold. With an asset base of this scale, it is also crucial that we are in a position to identify potential individual mechanical faults, allowing us to pinpoint which piece of equipment needs replacing prior to failure.”

Collins says Real Asset Management’s software allows MCCC to flag up such issues for inclusion in monthly and annual reports. It can also interface with the company’s ERP system, and all 30 supervisors on site now have access to the software. Demonstrable arguments for asset replacement must be based on performance, maintenance history and expert insight into new ideas.

Streamlined system

There is growing awareness that minimising reactive maintenance through effective planned, preventative maintenance can drastically reduce accidents – as well as improving uptime and reducing asset maintenance costs.

“Maintenance software brings efficiencies, time and money savings, and simpler processes,” says David Hipkin, managing director at CMMS firm SoftSols Group.

He says this software is now able to be fully integrated with existing programmes already used in a process plant such as SCADA and ERP systems to create “one coherent streamlined system”.

“Business environments are becoming ever more complicated,” he adds. “Customers now can have contractors, site-based roaming employees and field-based staff covering multiple sites and all these groups need to be communicated with efficiently.”

In response, his firm is now producing web browser-based software that can be accessed from handhelds, tablets and smartphones with internet or Wi-Fi access.

“We are very excited by the developments we have coming through and also harnessing other technologies,” he says.