Plant Services - November 2007 - (Page 41)

ManageMent Personnel The RFID connection RFID has been the center of a lot of hoopla during the past couple of years, inspiring intense consideration of its potential for facilitating industrial maintenance. “It’s good in the right application, but you have to know what you’re trying to do,” says Padula. “Do you want simply to replace bar codes? Keep track of inventory? Store information?” In a typical mobile application, calibration or condition information is gathered during rounds using the keys, a stylus or touchscreen, or by downloading it over wired or wireless connections. “With RFID, we’re able to pull readings off a machine, like runtime hours and lift hours from a fork truck, or energy consumption,” says Mick Milnark, president, Blue Dot Solutions (www.bluedotsolutions. com). “With an RFID device connected to the motor or meter, you can walk into the area and boom – you’ve got 50 readings loaded into the mobile and the CMMS.” RFID also is finding value as an asset tracking/locating device. The traditional approach tracks passive RFID tags on assets as they pass through a doorway. But compared to a real-time location service (RTLS), “Passive RFID is a limited technology,” says Hesh Kagan, director, wireless programs, Invensys (www.invensys.com). “It can detect that an object has passed a portal or come over a fence. RTLS tells you where it is.” RTLS triangulates on the strengths of signals from asset-mounted, battery-powered active RFID transmitters. The signal strengths at various receivers in a WiFi mesh provides an approximate location, which can be made more precise by training the system with “fingerprint” patterns of objects in specific places. “It’s mainly software on the WiFi network, so it’s very inexpensive to implement,” Kagan says. “AeroScout has been doing it.” Adding GPS is another way to track November 2007 Mark it up Figure 2. Features such as inking and annotation let technicians mark up displays and e-mail, print or save the screen capture to facilitate communications. asset locations. Once the coordinates are loaded, Padula says, “The locations help you find the assets, select the right one for the work order, schedule and route based on distance and location, and verify the presence of the technician with ‘I was there’ time and date stamping.” EMERGING MARKET CONTENT DISCOVER W W W.DISCOVERCURTIS.COM ©2007 Curtis-Toledo, Inc. 17638_2 07 CTGNL GENRL Emerging.indd www.PLANTSERVICES.com 1 9/19/07 41 7:30:29 http://www.bluedotsolutions.com http://www.bluedotsolutions.com http://www.invensys.com http://www.discovercurtis.com http://www.discovercurtis.com http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Plant Services - November 2007

Plant Services - November 2007 Contents New Tools Letters Let Us Know Where to Put the Gas Up and Running How are you Fighting Crisis? What Works Why is the Best Practice Transfer so Hard? Who are you Going to Call? Chained to Power Mobile Mindset Making Money in the Lube Lab Grabbing a Moving Target Bagging the BTUs Keeping Mellow Preserving Health and Safety The Power of Reliability Excellence

Plant Services - November 2007

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