Plant maintenance technology architecture

• US 7,406,431 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2001
• Issued: 07/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Klemme-Wolff, Hans, Spira, Mario Cosmas, Tautrim, Jorg, Niedermayr, Erich, Menden, Gunter, Sommer, Bernhard
• Primary Examiner(s): Doren; Beth Van
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sterrett; Jonathan G
• Application Number:
  US09/979,910
• Publication Number:
  US 20020161614A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,694 Days
• Field of Search: 705 8- 10, 705/7
• US Class Current: 705/7.21
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

An overall plan for providing maintenance and technical services for businesses and plants, as broadly defined, includes generic procedures for the services written as a manual of standard practices. A knowledge base or experience database of data and people is utilized, and both hardware and software tools are selected and used in providing the services.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented architecture for providing maintenance services by performing a method of aligning maintenance policies to business objectives of a customer, comprising the steps of:

(a) building a facility maintenance repository of historical data including performing a collection of business and maintenance processes of a facility to produce a historical assessment of a potential customer'"'"'s facility, wherein the historical assessment identifies specific hardware equipment and software and site maintenance requirements and is related to technical services at the facility;

(b) determining processes utilizing the specific hardware equipment and software identified in (a) above, and performing a criticality analysis that categorizes the processes as either critical or non-critical based on the impact a failed process has on the operation of the customer'"'"'s facility;

(c) performing a component identification of specific components that constitute the equipment utilized in the critical processes identified above;

(d) analyzing the failure modes of the components identified in (c) above and determining which analytical technique or combination of analytical techniques is necessary to predict a technical system or component failure;

(e) proposing an outsourced technical and maintenance services package, wherein the outsourced technical and maintenance services package includes providing a presentation manual for presenting information on the maintenance services being proposed, said manual being based on the historical data of the customer'"'"'s facility and on historical data of comparable facilities of others and on predictions of technical system and component failure;

wherein the outsourced maintenance package is based on providing maintenance support necessary for successful operation of the critical processes identified in (b) above

(f) establishing agreement with the potential customer to provide maintenance according to the outsourced maintenance package of step (e) above;

(g) providing maintenance at the customer'"'"'s facility according to the agreement of (f);

(h) further providing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week remote support by utilizing regional facilities that are located in at least three geographic regions around the world such that the regional facilities are staffed during normal daytime business hours;

wherein the remote support provides the following services to the customer facility;

(1) providing on call support of expert advice;

wherein the expert advice is provided by the regional facilities based on the information contained in a knowledge database;

wherein the knowledge database utilizes historical information based on other, similar industrial facilities or components

(2) providing remote condition monitoring of the components identified in (c) utilizing at least one of the analytical techniques identified in (d);

wherein the remote condition monitoring is further enhanced utilizing the knowledge database;

(i) benchmarking the customer facility'"'"'s key performance indicators against comparable other facilities to improve the performance of the maintenance provider against the benchmark.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

providing a single headquarters location; and

providing Internet connections between said single headquarters location and said regional facilities.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said regional facilities are provided for at least three regions, said three regions being:

the Far East, the European Union and a NAFTA country.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said regional facilities supervise manpower requirements for said customer'"'"'s facility.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of transferring program modules from said regional facilities to said customer'"'"'s facility through said Internet connections.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of:

providing supervisory control of technical services at said customer'"'"'s facility from said regional facility through said Internet connections.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said customer'"'"'s facility is an airport.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said customer'"'"'s facility is a power plant.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said power plant is one of:

a fossil fuel plant, an atomic energy plant, and a hydroelectric power plant.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said outsourced maintenance package further includes providing human resources support to said customer facility.

11. A computer-implemented architecture as claimed in claim 1, wherein the manual takes product-specific bits of information and plant-specific bits of information from experience databases from worldwide plants having a same production target as said facility and the same production methods as said facility.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said outsourced maintenance package further includes providing maintenance training to personnel based at said customer'"'"'s facility.

13. A method for providing maintenance services to plants, comprising the steps of:

maintaining a plurality of plants on an outsourced basis;

defining and implementing methods and tool systems to deliver value-added and integrated plant maintenance;

collecting operative business and maintenance processes in a comprehensive and merged description as a manual;

using guidelines and an architecture for selecting and integrating software and hardware tools and resources to perform the process steps outlined in the manual, said resources including consultants and cooperation partners;

identifying and providing best-in-class software as said software;

using an experience database as a knowledge base that includes data tools and people which are consulted either occasionally or constantly for guidance, said knowledge base includes at least one of data from project experience, regional business information, data relating to technical equipment, and cost models, said knowledge base including a plant maintenance repository of historical data of at least one plant;

consulting the knowledge base for predictions of plant events, system and component failure modes and events for said at least one plant;

using modules which are implemented through software and hardware, installing said modules at a local level in each of said plurality of plants;

operating and controlling the service through regional facilities that are linked to the at least one plant by a communication connection, said regional facilities being provided at regions around the globe, said regional centers being locate in the Far East, in the European Union, and in a NAFTA country, said regional centers being open during ordinary business hours so as to offer 24 hour support to the at least one plant;

providing written strategy and methods, understanding of know-how based on business processes and know-how based on technical processes, and integration and piloting to said at least one plant

utilizing said software and said hardware in combination together with said manual and said knowledge base to yield optimum financial results for said at least one plant.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein said at least one plant is one of an airport, steel mill, hospitals, mine, ship yard, large building, hotel, chemical plant, cement plant, subway system, railway system, container terminal, oil drilling rig or platform, paper mill, oil or natural gas pipeline system, lime plant, water treatment plant including desalination, fresh water pipelining and waste water treatment, and food service facility.