Focus on: Plant & Asset Management Maintenance Matters August/September 2023 www.pwemag.co.uk Plant & Works Engineering | 13 TECHNICAL TRAINING SOLUTIONS Providing Electrical, Instrumentation & Mechanical Practical Skills Training for Industry since 1980 LEARNING BY DOING technicaltrainingsolutions.co.uk tech.training@zen.co.uk 01634 731 470 which then predicts the best time for the precautionary replacement of equipment parts and thus makes maintenance plannable and minimizes downtimes. The big boom for Industry-4.0-solutions, networked equipment and digital twins is proof that there is great potential here for increasing efficiency and effectiveness. The IFS Ultimo trend report mentioned at the beginning of this article also shows that companies are clearly willing to invest in technologies that have a positive impact on cost control and uptime of their assets. 48.15% - almost half of the companies - identify investments in IT and IoT solutions as the top solution for this. Not only can companies decide between proactive maintenance and repair when they know the cost of each item and the impact on the life of their assets, but with comprehensive data, it is also possible to decide who will ideally implement measures: an on-site technician, who admittedly also costs money on the one hand and may have to be trained, or a specialist, who in case of doubt will only be on site with some lead time and thus possibly extend the downtime. In order to achieve maximum efficiency, it is essential to find optimum solutions here - right through to the implementation of measures by the user under the guidance of a service technician. Sustainable cost control made easy So, it turns out that identifying costs, controlling them and managing the corresponding expenses is the key to achieving the highest possible production efficiency and profitability. Once this information is available, the challenge is to ensure seamless documentation and communication within a company. Only then will asset managers know what it actually costs to maintain their assets, what the cost of downtime is compared to, and what impact the change in maintenance method has on availability and productivity. For this purpose, it is necessary to systematically collect and analyse the data and prepare it and make it accessible to the stakeholders involved in the company - from the user to the maintenance manager to controlling and management. Digital twins bring equipment online The IFS Ultimo EAM system enables the digital management of machines and equipment throughout their entire lifecycle and includes the planning, optimisation, execution and documentation of maintenance activities. The cloud-based IFS Ultimo EAM platform collects the relevant data centrally so that it is available in one place, even if a company has multiple sites and production facilities. Everyone involved in the processes accesses the same data - whether on PC, tablet or smartphone. Beyond retrieving equipment data, it is possible to use virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) to create digital twins of a machine on the network and share current views from on-site with a remote working expert. These technologies are seamlessly integrated into the IFS Ultimo EAM system and open up new possibilities for collaboration and maintenance management for companies. This also saves time and costs for maintenance. IFS Ultimo can, according to the company, also integrate other corporate data - for Health, Safety and Environment Management, for example - and link to other software solutions such as business intelligence tools. This creates an extensive ‘big data’ platform for datadriven business decisions.
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