A manufacturing organization has a lot of different players, and all of them need different information—some urgently, some less so. “All of the information that’s incoming needs to be distributed in a secure and timely manner,” said Duncan Schleiss, Emerson vice president of business development, Process Systems and Solutions. Schleiss delivered the news of his company’s “Always Mobile” solution at this week’s Emerson Global Users Exchange in Austin, Texas.
“We need to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time,” he said. “Not everyone is working at the same speed. Relevance and speed are different for everyone, depending on their roles. Who needs to know about what and at what speed?”
Emerson’s See–Decide–Act model leverages data collected from the customer site, gets it in the hands of Emerson experts for analysis, and then delivers actionable information to customers. All toward reducing unplanned downtime, optimizing preventive maintenance tasks, lowering maintenance costs and improving outage planning for maintenance and spare parts. “Always Mobile is the Act department,” said Schleiss.
[sidebar id =1]Always Mobile gives professionals access to role-based tools, analytics and dashboards anywhere, anytime. By adding mobility to the AMS and DeltaV process automation platforms, Emerson has extended the reach of its Plantweb offering. Plant personnel can access information needed to perform their jobs, regardless of where they are.
The DeltaV Mobile application allows users to monitor processes remotely and receive notifications on user-selected process alarms. The AMS Trex Device Communicator provides maintenance technicians with a modern user experience packaged in a tool built to withstand harsh industrial environments, isolating repair problems without interrupting production. AMS Asset View’s persona-based alert system ensures reliability personnel receive relevant alerts needed to ensure asset health.
Facilities’ biggest challenge is managing expertise. Knowledge is leaving the organization. With Connected Services for DeltaV, data from steam traps, machinery and control valves can collected and pushed to Emerson subject matter experts, who can fill that knowledge void remotely, said Schleiss.
“In terms of monitoring on our customers’ behalf, we need to avoid rearview-looking numbers,” said Schleiss. “We should be looking at the health of equipment in the plant. It should be displayed as a forward-looking number that customers can act upon. This is a completely different driver than historical information.”
Emerson’s Always Mobile solutions provide process insight to mobile tools and devices. The AMS 2140 Machinery Health Analyzer, for example, enhances vibration analysis and maintenance by automatically collecting data and reducing data man-hours in the field, and is ergonomically designed for single-hand operation.
The AMS ATG View mobile application, in turn, provides protection status, health data and alarm status of critical assets to mobiles devices anywhere on the plant’s Wi-Fi network. ATG View also distributes data from the AMS 6500 ATG protection system. And Emerson’s 475 Field Communicator is a built-for-purpose handheld communicator that enables advanced diagnostics for valves and devices in the field.
“We started with the maintenance tech,” explained Schleiss. “AMS Device Works delivers instrument information. It’s an extension of the AMS Device Manager. It provides device health and performance to electrical and instrumentation maintenance personnel in relevant time. Everywhere. Securely.”
