You’ll recognize this scenario. Most industrial operations and maintenance personnel work from a central control room where operators work via fixed HMIs (human/machine interfaces) that are typically PC-based systems. There are usually local HMI options in the field too, ranging from pushbuttons to smaller displays, but these are also fixed in place, with very localized and limited functionality. When operators detect trouble, the next step is for them to contact maintenance mechanics and electricians who are dispatched to the field to resolve the problem. The operators remain at their station and may communicate with maintenance via radio to coordinate their actions with what remote personnel are seeing on their local screens. This is a tried and true approach, but cumbersome as it introduces delays and opportunities for errors. Plants are thus searching for a better tactic, one where these two areas converge.
In this article in Plant Engineering, Rich Carpenter, general manager, product management, Machine Automation Solutions, talks about just such convergence between traditional operations and maintenance functions, which can save a plant enormous amounts of time, trial-and-error and frustration. This operations/maintenance convergence is supported by another merging of business information technologies (IT) with plant floor operational technologies (OT). The IT/OT convergence is enabled as IT-based hardware, software, networking and protocols become integrated and more compatible with OT-hardware such as PLCs and HMIs, resulting in the proliferation of highly capable mobile HMI options. Mobile HMIs release operators from the control room and provide extended information for maintenance personnel at field locations. In some cases, a single person working in a converged operations/maintenance role can quickly identify a problem, physically go to it, troubleshoot it, and resolve it.
To learn more about how these multiple convergences will occur and the results you can expect, check out Rich’s article.
How do you interface your operations and maintenance staffs? Are you using handhelds yet?