Background
PlantConnect RAMS is a powerful
solution for monitoring of performance and health of capital equipment and
machines installed with various clients. Data so acquired enables the equipment
manufacturers to provide value added inputs well in time, take of preventive
maintenance and trouble short problems at early stage. The solution is proven
and working with many clients.
A leading OEM of fully automatic
exercise book machine, cut size sheeter, reel to sheet ruling, and other
machines wanted to strengthen its market position by offering an online
monitoring solution that would enable it to provide better maintenance and
support services to its customers (continuously increasing) spread across
geographies in India and abroad. The company was looking for a suitable and
proven solution for their business case.
Business
Objectives - planned
The company top management had specified following as the
most important deliverables and business objectives for the solution
- Offer remote
monitoring capability for increasing up time as a USP and increase
competitive advantage over competitors
- Acquire data in
real time from machines installed at customer sites across locations and archive
data for analysis and reporting
- Enable preventive
and proactive maintenance tasks so as to increase uptime and prevent
unplanned break downs
- Support and enable
remote diagnosis of problems when reported and provide inputs and advice
to clients with a view to get machines back in operations in shortest
possible time
- Reduce overall
costs for maintenance and support
- Analyze data and
fault reports as inputs for R & D for improving next generation of
machines
Solution
The company was using a remote desk
top solution to connect to each machine and see the operations. However, the
obvious shortages like requirement of one system per machine, lack of
aggregation, heavy costs of operations, etc. were becoming a hindrance as the
number of machines to be monitored were increasing.
PlantConnect RAMS from Ascent
Informatics was seen as the perfect fit solution that had the capability of
delivering all the objectives laid down and more. PlantConnect has been
implemented in many similar scenarios and clients are using the capabilities to
fullest. PlantConnect has required features like acquiring data from machines,
and providing intelligence on the collected data through analytics and
reporting. Additional capabilities can be added as required by client’s domain
knowledge in terms or specific reports, alerts and visualization.
Selection of
system by client
Based on the project objectives and technical discussions, the client evaluated
and selected PlantConnect RAMS as the most appropriate solution for its
requirement. Main reasons for this selection were:
- PlantConnect DAS
(Data Acquisition System) module can be embedded on the machine, thus
eliminating the requirement of separate PC/hardware
- PlantConnect has
strong analytical and reporting features as required by the client
- PlantConnect has
strong server component to handle large data load
- PlantConnect is
customizable to implement the specific requirements of the client
Deployment SchematicTechnical
details of project and installationThe machines have an embedded card installed
in each machine. This card runs a Windows OS. PlantConnect DAS is installed on
this card, and using the Modbus TCP communication driver, data is acquired from
each machine. Each machine is connected to a central server in the operations
center of the company over internet. Current
status of the projectThe client has connected more than
fifteen (15) existing customer sites. Every new machine shipped will have PlantConnect
pre-installed on it. The management and especially the maintenance team are
extremely happy with system performance and features. The system, especially
the alarms and reporting features are used extensively. Business Objectives
- achievedClient has been able to achieve large number of benefits within a month
of operationalization if the solution. The following benefits were achieved: - Continuous
monitoring: Able to monitor important machine parameters 24 x 7
- Alarms:
Able to define alarms to monitor situations like motor temperature, paper
stuck, lubrication not completed, etc.
- Maintenance:
Able to schedule maintenance based on machine running hours, and periodic
maintenance
- Reports:
Customized reports like production report, machine on-off report, email summary,
etc. These reports greatly improved their support activity and decision making.
- Widgets: Machine parameter widgets made crucial
information available at a single place enabling quick analysis and action for
online support
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