GE identifies top calibration trends

Demographic and skills gap

Across virtually all engineering sectors, there is currently a massive shortage of qualified instrument engineers and technicians.

The ageing technician workforce in North America and Europe has created a market to bridge the skills gap and counterbalance the shrinking workforce with smart and powerful instruments.

Because of these instruments, simplified calibration and maintenance processes are now a reality.

GE says one technician can do today as much as three technicians in the past. The instruments are easier to use and provide complete solutions such as intuitive hand-held calibration with modularity, HART communication, Fieldbus functionality, web-based calibration management systems, integrated data with high-end ERP software and much more.

What’s more, today’s integrated calibration management software enables automated planning, decision-making, resource allocation, task execution, documentation and analysis helping engineers to do more with less resources.

Instruments with computing power are essential

While a surprising number of organisations still use pen and paper to record calibration results, they’ve also become increasingly aware of efficiency and accuracy losses.

An instrument engineer using the traditional method of documenting calibration information can spend as much as 50% of his time off crucial tasks.

Paper-based recording is not only time consuming, it is also prone to transcription mistakes.

In the modern industrial environment, companies need to adopt solutions enabling them to deliver quick results without jeopardising quality.

Today’s advanced portable calibrators help engineers deliver smarter and faster calibration: they can store vast amounts of data and provide seamless and paperless documentation of calibration and maintenance tasks.

These calibrators put all the device standards, manuals, data sheets and internet access at engineers’ fingertips.

What’s more, with the latest web-based technology, calibration management software can be installed on a company’s server and accessed through a PC and web browser from anywhere in the world.

Outsourcing is falling from favour

Outsourcing off-site calibration as well as equipment servicing and calibrating has almost become the norm, with many enterprises hiring specialised teams to tap into skills lacking internally and cut costs.

However, the outsourcing tide has begun to ebb when more and more companies have started bringing calibration and maintenance processes back in-house for the very same reason: cost savings.

Many organisations are moving away from outsourcing calibration processes because instruments more user-friendly and results that previously required entire specialised teams can now be achieved by adopting the right technology.

Moreover, software enables engineers and technicians to know exactly when to calibrate and where to calibrate, thereby gaining control and flexibility at lower costs.

Today’s calibration management software can be used to analyse calibration data and determine the optimum calibration frequency for each instrument on the basis of a set of programmable operating scenarios and safety margins.

Less maintenance for longer plant life

Calibration is an important aspect of maintenance and if calibration data is analysed correctly, it can help maintain and improve compliance, efficiency, quality and safety.

However, managing the calibration of thousands of plant instruments and then analysing all the data to a level required for trend evaluation is not a simple task.

Today’s laboratory calibration equipment offers easy communication with software and can provide 100% automated calibration of pressure transducers and transmitters.

However, this is not a perfect solution because instruments, like many electrical and mechanical devices, often do not respond kindly to being dismantled.

The result sometimes is a fall-off in performance after reassembly.

An obvious answer to this is to calibrate more frequently, but this entails increased time and cost, both in lost production and in calibration resource.

Fortunately, today’s calibration management software can analyse collected calibration data and determine the optimum calibration frequency for each instrument or measuring device, based on a set of programmable operating scenarios and safety margins.

Consequently, for all these reasons, the aim must be to carry out less maintenance, while maintaining accuracy of calibration to ensure quality of product and productivity of plant and to comply with regulations.

For a free copy of GE’s ‘Top Calibration Trends’, please download the PDF above.