How FDT Can Be Integrated into Plant Asset Management

June 28, 2012

Integrated Asset Management Tools Can Help You Operate and Maintain Processes

Author

David Riemer, Service + Solutions Product Marketer

Executive Summary – FDT technology integrated with asset management tools allows users to monitor, maintain and troubleshoot their assets. When coupled with an improvement management process, it can allow users to become leaders in how to operate and maintain their processes.

The Endress+Hauser PAM (plant asset management) Software Tools utilize the open and collaborative technologies of FDT to allow data commonly trapped in "data silos" to be brought together into one system, or inversely, the PAM Suite could serve data to other systems; either way, the freedom of choice is always there. Through a user- centric and intuitive interface one can quickly look up specific detailed information based on the asset identification commonly called the "tag." All the relevant information—model number, device type (pressure, temperature, etc), operation manuals, spare parts list, as well as equipment phase-out information as field devices become obsolete over their lifecycle or operation manuals get updated—can be tracked.

No longer do you have to look through multiple databases for the information needed to do your job. This will reduce both workflow and man-hours.

The Endress+Hauser PAM tools are integrated within the certified FDT Frame Application, FieldCare. You can instantly tunnel down through your automation system to a field device and access the configuration and health status (refer to the slide below).

With one mouse click, you will begin receiving the diagnostic information needed to quickly identify whether maintenance is required or not (refer to slide below).

Because the FDT Frame can easily integrate legacy devices with traditional DD files with iDTMs, it allows the user to see all their assets.

Shell has done extensive research on effectiveness maintenance practices and found that 63% of preventative maintenance had no benefit in improving the service life of a field device (refer to slide below).

Reliability engineers have determined that 80% of all failures are random. This confirms Shell’s finding that proactively accessing a field device to check its status more often than not resulted in no action required (refer to slide below).

This is why the Endress+Hauser PAM Software Tools have incorporated a Performance Monitoring module. The PAM Suite continuously monitors the health and performance of the field devices, reporting to maintenance teams when the performance or health status of a field device has changed, and human intervention is required (refer to slide below).

To put this into perspective, many of us have the oil changed routinely on our vehicle every 5000 km. This is an example of a preventive maintenance regime; the reality is, many of us could change the oil less frequently, increasing our own time efficiency and reducing our vehicle’s total cost of ownership. If we are one of those fortunate people with a vehicle that has performance monitoring that checks the oil quality and the driving style, it is quite possible that we could reduce the number of oil changes per year by at least a factor of two. Let’s not rule out that the very act of doing preventive maintenance may actually result in damage, as this is a reality in life. Thus once more, the goal should be to touch the field device the fewest number of times over its lifecycle (refer to slide below).

When we equate this back to instrumentation, we see predictive maintenance that utilizes performance monitoring of a field device improves maintenance performance, total cost of ownership and enables safe, available and reliable operation, paving the way to operational excellence (refer to slide below).

The power of FDT integration using DTMs and iDTMs is the key to allowing these tools to work so well. The process and automation market strives to become more efficient and effective. This level of visibility and detail gives users an edge in how they can manage their assets to reduce costs and improve availability.

Video