Plant maintenance technology architecture

• US 20020161614A1
• Filed: 11/14/2001
• Published: 10/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Menden, Gunter, Klemme-Wolff, Hans, Spira, Mario Cosmas, Tautrim, Jorg, Niedermayr, Erich, Sommer, Bernhard
• Granted Patent: US 7,406,431 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• 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. Customer-related technical services for obtaining an optimal financial result of a production plant by continuously applying the steps of:

a) providing a process description;

b) utilizing connected software tools and hardware tools; and

c) consulting an empirical database of experience.

2. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of providing a process description is performed worldwide according to the same criteria.

3. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

utilizing homogenous forms of marketing/acquisition, standard basic contract forms, standard offer management, mobilization, operation and demobilization.

4. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

performing the processes in a standardized fashion according to defaults of a manual.

5. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

utilizing a same course of action worldwide;

providing best practice sharing with respect to internationally comparable standards; and

introducing continuous improvement processes on a basis that is always the same.

6. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

describing internal and external processes in a manual, the internal processes run on a customer plant.

7. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 6, wherein the manual is in 26 writing in at least one of text form and diagram form.

8. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 6, wherein the manual is in 28 a form readable by a personal computer and which can be printed.

9. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 8, wherein the manual is on a CD-ROM.

10. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 6, wherein the manual is on the World Wide Web.

11. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 10, wherein the manual is in an encoded form that can only be retrieved by a password.

12. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 6, wherein the manual is embedded into a virtual scene and includes simulation possibilities.

13. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 6, wherein the manual has a portal with selection possibilities for different technical services in its form that can executed on the PC.

14. Customer-related technical services claimed in claim 6, further comprising the step of:

subjecting content of the manual to a dynamic process which derives from an integration of a dynamically growing experience database into the manual.

15. Customer-related technical services claimed in claim 6, 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 and the same production methods.

16. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, wherein technical developments as well as methodical developments are a part of the experience database.

17. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 6, wherein the manual contains a work flow for maintenance teams.

18. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, wherein the manual suggests method groups and methods as work instructions dependent on the work flow.

19. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 6, wherein the manual organizes a consideration and the following implementation of the workers utilizing centers of excellence, said centers of excellence having special knowledge.

20. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 19, wherein the maintenance work is carried out by local units supported by the centers of excellence.

21. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 19, wherein the centers of excellence are distributed and networked such that it is always possible to access resources.

22. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 21, wherein the resources are experts.

23. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 22, wherein the experts can be reached 24 hours a day.

25. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 24, wherein the individual components are software tools.

26. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

utilizing external data and external tools for supplementing.

27. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 19, further comprising the step of:

transmitting data in an encoded fashion between the centers of excellence and the local units.

28. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1,further comprising the step of:

improving standard software utilizing originally present experience data and improved experience data, said standard software being supplemented by experiences present in the database, utilizing worldwide knowledge therefor.

29. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

monitoring a condition of the plant utilizing remote expert centers.

30. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing an application service host that is one of centrally arranged and arranged remotely connected by the Internet, distribution and data forwarding ensues worldwide.

31. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 30, wherein the application service host is isolated from the individual customer programs and has fire walls between the customers, so that the customer data cannot be viewed externally.

32. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

collecting data from all customers and OEM'"'"'s in an anonymous fashion using a central database.

33. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 32, wherein the central database is on distributed servers.

34. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

selecting databases by a portal.

35. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 34, wherein the step of selecting is by menu prompting.

36. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 32, wherein the experience database represents reference data from a provider'"'"'s projects and customer projects, OEM data, industrial standard data, project experience data from other projects, standard maintenance, and standard operating plans.

37. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

modifying OEM defaults and utilizing modified defaults when the OEM defaults are not advantageous for the customer.

38. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 37, wherein said modified defaults are maintenance intervals.

39. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

internationally acquiring experience data;

organizing said experience data in a business-specific and system-specific manner; and

using key performance data and key performance indicators.

40. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing feedback loops for performing the services with a start at the original plant condition data.

41. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 40, wherein plant start data serves to introduce initial measures.

42. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 41, further comprising the step of:

learning within a framework of measures how the plant reacts to the initial measures; and

deriving further measures for improvement from the learning step.

43. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 41, further comprising the step of:

entering an effect of measures into the experience database, as well as key performance data.

44. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 41, further comprising the step of:

introducing a request for changing the procedure which is business-specific into the manual.

45. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 41, further comprising the step of:

introducing modified methods and tools into the manual due to the necessary changes in the procedure.

46. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

improving services by

a) a database,

b) a manual,

c) local project experiences, which are directly realized, and

d) an improvement of the software tools and hardware tools.

47. Customer-related technical services as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing that tools for improvement permanently communicate with the database.

49. A method as claimed in claim 48, wherein said further information is provided through a network of computers.

24. Customer-related technical services, further comprising the steps of:

providing a system for implementing services with individual components which are obtainable on the market, said individual components being connected to a web-based knowledge-based database that continuously works with experience values.

48. A method of providing maintenance services at a plant, comprising the steps of:

providing a manual of operating principles common to all plants; and

providing further information of operating principles common to all plants of a type of plant.

50. A method of providing maintenance services at a plant, comprising the step of:

providing processes for addressing maintenance issues at the plant for each of a plurality of stages in a life of said plant.

51. A method as claimed in claim 50, wherein said stages include mobilization, operation and demobilization.

52. A method as claimed in claim 50, wherein said process includes providing tools for predetermined tasks, said tools being defined generically and being selected locally to said plant.

53. A method as claimed in claim 50, wherein said processes for addressing maintenance issues are driven by bottom line considerations for said plant.

54. A method for providing maintenance services at a plant, comprising the step of:

providing a knowledge repository of information specific to plants of the type of said plant.

55. A method as claimed in claim 54, wherein said knowledge repository includes a database of information and experts selectively in communication with said plant.

56. A method as claimed in claim 54, wherein said experts initiate communication to said plant.

57. A method as claimed in claim 54, further comprising the step of:

providing teleservices for technical assistance in maintenance of said plant.

58. A method as claimed in claim 57, wherein said teleservices includes providing a heads-up display and person mounted camera for remote examination of said plant by said experts.

59. A method as claimed in claim 58, wherein said heads-up display includes overlays for identification of parts of said plant.