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Successfully Executing a System Integration Project

ControlGlobal.com
01/10/2012

By Beamex

For process manufacturers today, having a reliable, seamlessly integrated set of IT systems across the plant, or across multiple sites, is critical to business efficiency, profitability and growth. Maintaining plant assets – whether that includes production line equipment, boilers, furnaces, special purpose machines, conveyor systems or hydraulic pumps – is equally critical for these companies. Maintenance management has become an issue which deserves enterprise-wide and perhaps multi-site attention, especially if the company is part of an asset-intensive industry, where equipment and plant infrastructure is large, complex and expensive. If stoppages to production lines due to equipment breakdowns are costly, implementing the latest computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS) might save precious time and money.

In the process industries, a small, but critical part of a company's asset management strategy should be the calibration of process instrumentation. Manufacturing plants need to be sure that their instrumentation products – temperature sensors, pressure transducers, flow meters and the like – are performing and measuring to specified tolerances. If sensors drift out of their specification range, the consequences can be disastrous, perhaps resulting in costly production downtime, safety issues or batches of inferior quality goods being produced, which then have to be scrapped. For this, Beamex's calibration management software, Beamex CMX, has proved itself time and time again across many industry sectors, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, nuclear, metal processing, paper, oil and gas.

Today, most process manufacturers use some sort of computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) that sits alongside their calibration management system. Beamex CMX Professional or Beamex CMX Enterprise software can easily be integrated to CMM systems, whether it is a Maximo, SAP or Datastream CMM system or even a company's own, in-house software for maintenance management.

Beamex CMX helps companies document, schedule, plan, analyze and optimize their calibration work. Seamless communication between CMX and ‘smart' calibrators means that companies have the ability to automate predefined calibration procedures. As well as retrieving and storing calibration data, CMX can also download detailed instructions for operation before and after calibrating, like procedures, reminders and safety-related information. Seamless communication with calibrators also provides many practical benefits such as a reduction in paperwork, elimination of human error associated with manual recording, and the ability to speed up the calibration task. CMX also stores the complete calibration history of process instruments and produces fully traceable calibration records.

Download this document to learn how to successfully execute a system integration project.