Method and system for maintenance of a production plant

• US 20040093102A1
• Filed: 07/07/2003
• Published: 05/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Valmet Technologies OY
• Original Assignee: Valmet Technologies OY
• Inventors: Maki, Kari, Liiri, Sami
• Application Number:
  US10/398,831
• Publication Number:
  US 20040093102A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/96
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32226 Computer assisted repair, maintenance of system components
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33148 CLS client server architecture, client consumes, server provides services
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33192 Radio link, wireless
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33225 Interface nc machine to data server
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33284 Remote diagnostic
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36371 Barcode reader
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and system for the maintenance of a production plant. The method and system of maintenance is carried out in the production plant (100) on objects of work which comprise production plant equipment. In addition, a plan is worked out for maintenance, in which the objects of work to be checked and the actions to be carried out on them during each maintenance cycle are defined, and an equipment card is made for each object of work to be maintained, which equipment card is maintained on an application server (30). A portable computer (10) is brought into use for maintenance operations, which computer has a connection to the application server (30), each object of work is identified when maintenance is started, information relating to maintenance is fed into the potable computer (10) in connection with maintenance work, the information is transferred to the application server (30), the information is updated in an equipment card file on the application server (30), and the information on the results of maintenance is transferred from the application server (30) to the production plant.

Claims

1. A method for the maintenance of a production plant, which is a paper mill, a board mill, a pulp production plant, a paper finishing plant or an equivalent plant associated with paper/board manufacture/converting, in which method maintenance, for example, preventive maintenance, scheduled maintenance and checks associated with maintenance are carried out in the production plant 100 on objects of work which comprise production plant equipment or equipment units, characterised in that the method additionally comprises the steps of,

working out a plan for maintenance, which plan defines the objects of work to be checked and the actions to be carried out on them during each maintenance cycle,

making an equipment card for each object of work to be maintained, which equipment card is maintained on an application server (30),

bringing a portable computer (10) into use for maintenance operations, which computer has a connection to the application server (30),

identifying each object of work when maintenance is started,

feeding information relating to maintenance into the portable computer (10) in connection with maintenance work,

transferrng the information relating to maintenance to the application server (30),

updating the information relating to maintenance in an equipment card file on the application server (30), and

transferring the information on the results of maintenance from the application server (30) to the production plant.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that the portable computer (10) is in a wireless connection with the application server.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the object of work is identified by means of a bar code or another marking, which is read by the portable computer (10) optically or by some other identification method.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the object of work is identified from an identification code which is fed into the portable computer (10).

5. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the serial number of the object of work, i.e. an equipment item or an equipment unit, information on the model of the equipment, manufacturing material, the supplier of the equipment, order and sales numbers, a list of components, information on the barcode identifier of the equipment, installation instructions, preventive maintenance instructions, repair inrructions, maintenance history andlor preventive maintenance history are stored in the equipment card.

6. A method according to any one of claims, 1 to 5, characterised in that information on the results of maintenance is transferred from the application server (30) to the production plant (100). and, in failure situations, the necessary spare part(s) is/are ordered and/or repair work is ordered.

7. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the need for future maintenance work is predicted based on the information gathered into the application sever (30).

8. A maintenance system for the maintenance of a production plant, which is a paper mill a board mill, a pulp production plant, a paper finishing plant or an equivalent plant associated with paper/board manufacture/converting, characterised in that it comprises an equipment card file which is stored on an application server (30) and in which information is stored in a given format, an identifyig means for identifying an object of work the application server (30) for storing maintenance system information in the equipment card file, one or more portable computers (10) from which a connection has been arranged to the application server, and a data transmission connection to transmit information bidirectionally between the application server (30) and a service centre (200) as well as between the application server (30) and the production plant (100).

9. A maintenance system according to claim 8, characterised in that the equipment card file comprises equipment cards for the equipment belonging to the maintenance system, the information in said cards being stored in the XML format.

10. A maintenance system according to claim 8 or 9, characterised in that the identifying means of the object of work is a bar code or another marking which can be read optically or by some other identification method.

11. A maintenance system according to any one of claims 8 to 10, characterised in that the equipment card includes, for example, the following information on the equipment to be maintained:

a serial number, information on the model of the equipment, manufacturing material, the supplier of the equipment, order and sales numbers, a list of components, information on the barcode identifier of the equipment, installation instructions, preventive maintenance instructions, repair instructions, maintenance history and/or preventive maintenance history.

12. A maintenance system according to any one of claims 8 to 11, characterised in that the application server (30) complies with the ASP system.

13. A maintenance system according to any one of claims 8 to 12, characterised in that information is arranged to be traitted from the application server (30) or to the application server (30) only by those who are authorised to do so.

14. A maintenance system according to any one of claims 8 to 13, characterised in that the portable computer (10) compnises a reader for reading a bar code or another identification means.

15. A maintenance system according to any one of claims 8 to 14, characterised in that a wireless data transmission connection is arranged from the portable computer (10) to communicate with the application server (30).

16. A maintenance system according to any one of claims 8 to 15, characterised in that the portable computer (10) comprises a user interface which is arranged for processing preventive maintenance information and for storing information.

17. A maintenance system according to any one of claims 8 to 16, characterised in that the user interface of the portable computer (10) is interactive.

18. A maintenance system according to any one of claims 8 to 17, characterised in that the portable computer (10) is a PDA (Personal Digital Assisant) device.