Automatic maintenance estimation in a plant environment

• US 20080288321A1
• Filed: 05/15/2007
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Hokeness, Scott N., Dillon, Steven R.
• Granted Patent: US 10,410,145 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0283 Predictive maintenance, e.g. involving the monitoring of a system and, based on the monitoring results, taking decisions on the maintenance schedule of the monitored system; Estimating remaining useful life [RUL] preventive maintenance, i.e. planning maintenance according to the available resources without monitoring the system G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change

Abstract

A maintenance system for a process plant collects and uses historical data about maintenance orders. The data identifies the maintenance items for completing an order, such as the labor, materials, and maintenance tasks required. The data is historical data developed from actual completed maintenance orders. The system uses archived historical data and estimates various maintenance information, such as estimated cost for completing the maintenance order, and estimated start and completion times. The estimated data may be based on averaged data as a result. This estimated data along with the other maintenance order information may be sent to a scheduler for identifying a priority to the maintenance order and scheduling it accordingly.

Claims

1. A method of automatically scheduling maintenance orders within a process plant comprises a plurality of assets, the method comprising:

generating a maintenance order in response to a maintenance alert for at least one of the plurality of assets;

generating estimated maintenance information for the maintenance order, the estimated maintenance information indicating an estimated time or an estimated cost associated with the maintenance order;

communicating the estimated maintenance information to a maintenance scheduler for scheduling the maintenance order among a plurality of other maintenance orders; and

scheduling the maintenance order based on the estimated maintenance information, the scheduling resulting in a maintenance schedule that includes the maintenance order.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating an estimated completion time as the estimated time for the maintenance order, the estimated maintenance information containing the estimated completion time.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating an estimated start time as the estimated time for the maintenance order, the estimated maintenance information containing the estimated start time.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the estimated cost for the maintenance order, the estimation data containing the estimated cost.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the maintenance order is given a higher priority or a lower priority over at least one of the plurality of other maintenance orders based on the estimated maintenance information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the plurality of other maintenance orders corresponds to a different asset.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising scheduling the maintenance order based on current asset data.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the current asset data comprises a health index, a performance index, a usability index, or a variability index.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting historical data of at least one previous maintenance order corresponding to the maintenance alert; and

determining the estimated maintenance information based on the historical data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the historical data comprises maintenance task information, labor information, or materials information for the at least one previous maintenance order.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the historical data comprises an average completion time for the at least one previous maintenance order.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the historical data comprises an average cost for the at least one previous maintenance order.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one previous maintenance order was completed in response to the maintenance alert for at least one other of the plurality of assets.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising after completion of the maintenance order, modifying the historical data with actual maintenance task, actual labor, and actual materials information for the maintenance order.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the maintenance schedule to maintenance personnel.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the maintenance schedule in response to a change in the estimated maintenance information.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving data comprises receiving data pertaining to the status of one of a two-wire device, a three-wire device, a four-wire device, a wireless device, a device having a processor, a variable speed driver, a controller, a multiplexer, rotating equipment, an actuator, power generation equipment, power distribution equipment, a transmitter, a sensor, a control system, a transceiver, a valve, a positioner, a switch, electrical equipment, a server, a hand held device, a pump, an I/O system, a smart field device, a non-smart field device, a HART protocol device, a Fieldbus protocol device, a PROFIBUS®

protocol device, a WORLDFIP®

protocol device, a Device-Net®

protocol device, a AS-Interface protocol device, a CAN protocol device, a TCP/IP protocol device, an Ethernet device, an internet-based device, and a network communication device.

18. A method of automatically scheduling maintenance orders within a process plant, the method comprising:

generating a maintenance order in response to a maintenance alert for an asset in the process plant, the maintenance order comprising maintenance items for completing the maintenance order;

receiving actual data on the maintenance items;

receiving estimated maintenance information on the maintenance items;

comparing the actual data and the estimated maintenance information to generate estimated maintenance information for the maintenance order, the estimated maintenance information indicating an estimated time or an estimated cost associated with the maintenance order;

generating a maintenance schedule including the maintenance order and based on the estimated maintenance information.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the maintenance order is given a higher priority in the maintenance scheduling based on the estimated maintenance information.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein generating the maintenance schedule further comprises generating the maintenance schedule based current status information for the asset.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the current status information is a health index, a performance index, a usability index, or a variability index.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the actual data on the maintenance items is historical data collected from maintenance items of a completed maintenance order.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising receiving the historical data from an enterprise asset management system.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the historical data comprises an average completion time for the completed maintenance order.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the historical data comprises an average cost for the completed maintenance order.

26. The method of claim 18, wherein the actual data on the maintenance items comprises current maintenance task information, labor information, or materials information.

27. A system to be used in a process control environment for estimating a maintenance order, wherein the process control environment includes a plurality of devices, the system comprising:

a computer readable memory;

a first set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to generate a maintenance order in response to a maintenance alert for one of the plurality of devices;

a second set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to generate estimated maintenance information for the maintenance order, the estimated maintenance information indicating an estimated time or an estimated cost associated with the maintenance order;

a third set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to communicate the maintenance order to a maintenance scheduler; and

a fourth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to develop a maintenance schedule prioritizing the maintenance order based on the estimated maintenance information.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

a fifth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to receive data identifying the status of the plurality of devices; and

a sixth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to generate the maintenance alert in response to the received data identifying the status of the plurality of devices.

29. The system of claim 27, further comprising a fifth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to develop the maintenance schedule by prioritizing the maintenance order by comparing the estimated maintenance information to other maintenance orders.

30. The system of claim 27, further comprising a fifth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to communicate the maintenance schedule to maintenance personnel.

31. The system of claim 27, further comprising a fifth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to generate an estimated completion time as the estimated time for the maintenance order.

32. The system of claim 27, further comprising a fifth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to generate an estimated start time as the estimated time for the maintenance order.

33. The system of claim 27, further comprising a fifth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to generate the estimated cost.

34. The system of claim 27, further comprising a fifth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to develop the maintenance schedule based on current asset data.

35. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

a fifth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to collect historical data of at least one previous maintenance order; and

a sixth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to determine the estimated maintenance information based on the historical data.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the historical data comprises maintenance task information, labor information, or materials information for the at least one previous maintenance order.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the historical data comprises an average completion time for the at least one previous maintenance order.

38. The system of claim 35, wherein the historical data comprises an average cost for the at least one previous maintenance order.

39. The system of claim 35, further comprising a seventh set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to modify the historical data with actual maintenance task information, actual labor information, or actual materials information.

40. The system of claim 35 wherein the one of the plurality of devices having the maintenance order is a first type of plant asset and wherein the at least one previous maintenance order was executed on second type of plant asset different than the first type of plant asset.

41. The system of claim 27, further comprising a fifth set of instructions stored on the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed on a processor to modify the maintenance schedule in response to a change in the estimated maintenance information.