New ways with web maintenance

How does a biotech company based in the US manage its production equipment in Ireland? Simple – over the web. Genzyme of Cambridge, Mass, has just bought Datastream’s 7i asset lifecycle management (ALM) system to manage thousands of pieces of equipment ranging from research tools and instruments to manufacturing equipment and spread over two US sites and a facility in Waterford. For Genzyme, the web-route means real advantages: it can transfer and track assets between all its sites, understand how its resources are deployed, cut maintenance costs between the sites and gain a clear, company-wide picture of what is going on where. The system can be installed at a central point for use by all facilities and new ones can easily be brought on board. According to Nick Garnett, Datastream’s business development director, this is symptomatic of changes in the way asset management (AM) is being offered today. First, new partnerships with companies like automation giant GE Fanuc are allowing it to add the maintenance portion to established production management tools, linking capital equipment maintenance strategies with real-time production and offering customers a much more comprehensive service. Second, manufacturers are showing an increased appetite for consolidating their plant maintenance and management via the web and getting away from the separate system per site approach. The advantages are clear: it’s far easier to analyse best practice from a site performing well, and map that across others; and firms can make considerable savings on purchasing, particularly with common inventory stores. Garnett cites a major UK aerospace manufacturer which now holds expensive parts on one site only instead of one per site. Remote services Finally, new distributed architectures are opening the way to a whole range of value-added services including hosting, remote maintenance and after-sales services. Vendors like MRO.com, for example, have developed their software to use native XML-based integration to allow collaboration with trading partners and for integration with other enterprise applications. The result is an invitation for all-round innovation. AM vendors, specialist service providers and even equipment vendors can use web portals, intranets and extranets to open CMMS/AM technologies to a wider audience. For instance, the provider of a control system within a power station may also contract for the maintenance using a hosted service. In fact, Datastream provides a contractor working in Europe and the US with such a service from its Washington datacentre. A complete record of building and equipment assets is stored within a preconfigured area of the host system and updated by the contractor with plant performance details. Both power station users and maintenance provider can access it over the web. In another application, Netherlands-based Colpitt BV is using GE Fanuc’s Cimplicity WebView to manage its thermal welding machines on customers’ sites. These machines are used to produce medical products such as blood bags. As part of an innovative automation project aimed at providing its customers with better automated controls and data feedback, Colpitt used Conquest Automation and GE Fanuc’s Netherlands distributor TriMation to develop a system to help support users as far afield as the Far East and South America. Many of its overseas customers are not familiar with production machines like these and additional high tech features increase the need for support. But long distances between Colpitt and its customers meant risk of production losses before a technician could arrive. Now, all electronic devices are connected through a TCP/IP network onto the GE Fanuc system. With dial-up connection, all systems can be monitored or altered remotely, and Colpitt’s service department can, if directed, take complete control of the machine. A remotely controllable high-resolution camera gives a complete view of the machine to guarantee safe intervention, and the system is already saving time and money. Problems can be fixed by the on-site team rather than by specialist service technicians.