Uptime Magazine - October/November 2008 - (Page 22)

information technology upload Keeping It Simple The Implications & Importance of Easy Data Entry & Retrieval in EAM Systems by Michael Israel N o one disputes the importance of equipment maintenance in asset intensive industries. Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), like uptime and availability, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), production throughput, quality, Total Effective Equipment Performance (TEEP), and other KPI’s are directly impacted by the quality of maintenance performed on equipment. In some industries, such as aerospace, oil and gas production, and nuclear power generation, the stakes are greater still. In these industries, the safety of the customers and employees can be seriously impacted by lax maintenance procedures. As such, it’s important that organizations not monitor equipment performance alone. To be completely thorough, companies must also track and measure maintenance operations performance against established goals and targets. ing maintenance records in EAM systems. One vendor offering such a solution is Englewood, Colorado based Dimension Technology Solutions, Inc. (DTS). In fact, Gartner singled DTS out this year as a “Cool Vendor,” praising its smooth, Web 2.0 user interface to legacy systems.1 DTS has created a solution that was designed from its inception to ease data entry and information retrieval work that are added burdens for maintenance technicians. The pioneering concept behind the solution, eMESA – which originally stood for “electronic maintenance execution and scheduling accelerator” – was to ease the planning of work for maintenance operators and technicians by providing them with a very intuitive user experience, and to ultimately get more work orders and more accurate work order information into underlying EAM and ERP systems. That fundamental premise remains a core part of DTS’s eMESA design today. That is, to simplify the data entry task for technicians and managers, so they can concentrate on their core duties, which include looking after the equipment for which they are responsible. Most large organizations today have an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution in place as the backbone system to manage their finances and operations. A common component of the ERP system is an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) module, which is used to schedule and manage the maintenance activities to be performed on company assets. The ERP and EAM systems have been designed to help companies manage and track a wide range of specific business processes. That’s good—the intent behind these systems is to drive companies to implement a culture of discipline in their business operations, to ensure commonality of process, and to ensure that the correct information is collected—when it needs to be collected. In other words, it’s a noble goal, and organizations must have that data and data structure. So, what’s wrong? Nothing is necessarily wrong with the underlying ERP and EAM capabilities. They probably have all the required data elements. They likely support all the necessary workflow. But the problem arises when maintenance technicians and managers endeavor to perform day-to-day tasks on these underlying systems. The consensus is that these systems are difficult to use, and as a result, they’re not being used properly or thoroughly – and most crucially – they’re not being used efficiently. It’s a down-the-line effect, where a flaw in the collection (and input) of data leads to the distorted calculation of KPI measurements. Fortunately, some best-of-breed software solutions can significantly ease the pain of creating and updat- Foundation in Stone DTS began developing eMESA in the mid-1990’s, with an engagement at Rio Tinto, which is a global mining group that mines and processes a wide variety of metals and minerals in operations spanning every continent. The eMESA software was introduced as a result of that engagement and has since been successfully deployed Editors Note: We published this article with specific references to DTS eMesa software in order to tell more people about what we think is the next phase in the evolution of maintenance and reliability information management. We did not want to make it generic. There are other unique software products that we will also be presenting to you in the coming months. In order to bring you the full impact of the capabilities of some of these new technologies - we have decided to allow product specificity - not as an endorsement - but to create an enhanced understanding of the rapidly changing landscape of Information Technology. Uptime is comfortable stepping out of the limited and traditional etiquette of magazine publishing and we hope you see the value in our decision. We certainly invite your feedback as we go. october/november 2008 22

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Uptime Magazine - October/November 2008

Uptime Magazine - October/November 2008 Contents Upfront Upclose: An Asset Management Oasis in the Desert Information Technology: Streamlining Through Simplicity Lubrication: Phases for Framing a Solid Foundation Infrared: Do Your Homework Before You Buy Maintenance Management: Get It Together by Getting Together Motor Testing: Key Elements in Motor Decision Making Precision Maintenance: Shedding Some Light on Tolerances Reliability: RCM & the Mortgage Meltdown Ultrasound: A Multidimensional Tool Vibration: The Whirling Pump Mystery, Solved with ODS Upgrade: Are You Looking in the Right Place for Your Wear Debris?

Uptime Magazine - October/November 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.