Digital: How digital tools improve access to device information
Welcome to the future! The plant runs fully automated; robots glide silently back and forth, ensuring an optimized process; and your maintenance technician—with a few keystrokes—can tell you exactly how each piece of equipment is running. The promise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has been delivered.
Welcome to the future! The plant runs fully automated; robots glide silently back and forth, ensuring an optimized process; and your maintenance technician—with a few keystrokes—can tell you exactly how each piece of equipment is running. The promise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has been delivered.
Unfortunately, we are not quite there yet. Modernizing manufacturing and hydrocarbon facilities is not just a C-suite desire, it is also a business imperative to ensure that a facility can meet the demands of the marketplace for the next decade and beyond. However, meeting that challenge can seem daunting, especially when manufacturing and most major industries are facing a shortage of skilled workers. Having a plan and the right tools becomes essential; specifically, when it is necessary to maintain critical processes with fewer resources. Digital tools can be the crucial component that make the difference, particularly if they are easy to implement and use.
Another significant challenge is that plants often run a combination of legacy equipment alongside new equipment, requiring different manuals, service schedules and reports on each piece of equipment of which a maintenance technician would need to be aware. This combination of siloed, and often paper-based, information can make performing routine maintenance tasks unnecessarily time-consuming.
Maintenance in the field
Ideally, a field technician has the latest equipment information—the manual, operating specifications and the most recent inspection report—at their fingertips before going into the field to check a device. This is not always possible, and lack of access to relevant documentation is one of the biggest headaches of the job.
What about when the technician is in the field at the device but has a question that only the device manufacturer can answer? The technician might be unable to contact the representative immediately, requiring a subsequent trip into the field.
However, an easy, cost-effective digital tool can be used. For example, tagged devices with QR codes can be scanned to provide key device data relevant to a technician, such as serial number, shipped date, operating specifications and contact information for customer service. Implementing QR codes to installed devices is even easier with the help of the device manufacturer, which will encode the necessary data into the scannable code.
If a piece of equipment is tagged with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, even more data can be downloaded directly to the equipment, including an augmented reality view of how to perform maintenance
Adding scannable tags to equipment means that technicians can access most of the information they need on the job without having to spend valuable time tracking it down. The equipment data linked in the QR code or stored in the RFID tag can also be updated to ensure that technicians view the most current details on their mobile dashboard.
Shutdown, turnaround and outage (STO) planning
When planning an STO, having tagged devices with critical, up-to-date information streamlines the process. STO events are planned out in detail and are bound by strict time constraints, as a facility, or sections of the process, cannot afford to stand idle for long periods of time.
Technical updates are available without needing to search for them and can be incorporated in the planning of the STO. This will also make it easier to identify what equipment will need to be updated, repaired or replaced to avoid unscheduled downtime when a piece of equipment might fail or no longer operate within specifications.
The right digital tools help optimize the process
In all instances of maintenance and operations, access to data is a critical first step. Many avenues exist to capture, store and disseminate data—from a shared spreadsheet to an unwieldy custom database that only the information technology (IT) department knows how to manage. A custom dashboard that aggregates the relevant datasets makes accessing information quick and easy. This allows a technician to focus on their job instead of spending time tracking down necessary documentation, and offers confidence that they are working off the most up-to-date information.
With detailed device information available digitally, it becomes a simple matter to order a replacement part or an additional component with the same configuration as the one already in use in the process. This again streamlines work processes, as orders can be placed directly from the dashboard to the equipment manufacturer. These tools also make it easier for a facility to focus on proactive maintenance to ensure an optimized process.
Start small, think big
Even seemingly small changes—such as having a QR code on a flowmeter—can have a significant impact on the maintenance process at a facility. With more data instantly available, a maintenance technician can spend less time on the task with more confidence in the service work they perform.
Simple tools offered by device manufacturers help technicians access critical documentation which, in turn, improves maintenance processes. When implemented, such tools can accelerate adoption of a digital transformation by showing a tangible way to implement and achieve positive results. HP
The Author
Thompson, A. - Emerson Automation Solutions, Denver, Colorado
Adam Thompson is the Digital Product Manager at Emerson. He is focused on digital tools being developed for lifecycle services. This role allows him to focus on communication and product development aimed at solving customer pain points. Mr. Thompson has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of St. Thomas and an MBA degree with a focus on international marketing.
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