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Proficy Maintenance Gateway closes loop between production, maintenance

04/11/2008

Charlottesville, Va., April 10 -- GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms today announced its newest addition to the Proficy software suite of production management solutions-- Proficy Maintenance Gateway. This new software closes the loop between the plant floor and plant/corporate maintenance systems by using real-time production data, events and information to drive maintenance. With bidirectional communication between production and maintenance systems, companies can improve asset reliability to reduce equipment failure rates and increase uptime.

Proficy Maintenance Gateway monitors data points, events, trends and conditions on the plant floor in GE Fanuc’s award-winning production management software, Proficy Plant Applications, and maps maintenance-related asset information from enterprise asset management systems (EAM). Tightly integrating these two software systems, Proficy Maintenance Gateway uses the information in equipment to drive real-time optimization of maintenance systems. The software’s rules-based configuration engine allows users to define business logic in an intuitive, drag-and-drop environment, which speeds deployment. The system then monitors data points on the plant floor, executes the business logic defined by the user, and executes the defined “actions” in the EAM system, such as creating a maintenance work order.

The data starts at the deepest level of a company’s plant systems architecture--the control layer--where PLCs, DCS, CNCs and other devices provide the raw manufacturing data. From there, this data can be stored in a central repository for the site and then loaded into the business rules engine of Proficy Maintenance Gateway. This engine contains rules that can be adapted over time to achieve a state of “reliable maintenance” in the plant environment.

Embarking on a path to increase asset reliability with GE Fanuc’s Proficy Maintenance Gateway can help organizations to:
• Raise overall equipment effectiveness
• Increase return on production assets
• Decrease time to repair
• Minimize unplanned downtime
• Complete preventative maintenance work orders on time
• Enhance Lean/Six Sigma Initiatives
• Reduce maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) inventory
• Leverage corporate purchasing power
• Boost return on installed enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions

Most software technologies used to connect plant floor systems with enterprise applications require highly trained professionals with extensive knowledge of computers, networks and databases. As an out-of-the-box solution, Proficy Maintenance Gateway allows plant engineering and maintenance personnel to easily manage this connectivity and support preventative, predictive and emergency maintenance strategies. Users can view maintenance-related and performance-related information of each asset in one place. In its first release, Proficy Maintenance Gateway provides a bidirectional connection between Proficy Plant Applications and MAXIMO. Future releases will connect to additional EAM software solutions, including SAP Enterprise Asset Management and Datastream 7i. Proficy Maintenance Gateway is available in April 2008.