• To measure is to know
• Preventive Maintenance
• Prevent Costs and nuisance in the event of a breakdown or bad functioning
• Take the right decisions at the right time
• Track & Trace

 To measure is to know

First, ‘to measure is to know’. You can only be in control of your processes, when you know how they are doing. Therefore, you need to measure.

However, AIOT is booming, still, many companies are in the blind how their processes are functioning.  Or insights are only piecemeal, insight in a machine here, a process there. Which means a company isn’t in control of their whole process.

Preventive Maintenance

Know the extent to which your machines are wearing out. Prevent them from breaking down and schedule maintenance at the least bad time. In doing so, your employees can pay attention to the parts that need their attention the most: sensors keep an eye on the ‘normally’ running parts.

Prevent Costs and nuisance in the event of a breakdown or bad functioning

In many cases, a machine is a part of chain of a whole production process. Thus, a breakdown of one machine means downtime for your whole process.

With IoT, you can create new ways and do more with the same budget. Many industries are working in heavy circumstances because of dust, wind, heat, pressure, etcetera. So, it’s important to recognize if the equipment is still working properly.  With IoT, you can predict and prevent equipment failure by monitoring product wear and replacement rates.  As such, you improve the reliability of your assets and reduce downtime. And if you recognize little faults, you can solve them easily before they have become big and expensive problems.

Take the right decisions at the right time

Having control means that you can take the right decision at the right time. E.g.:

• To replace a motor of a machine
• Adjust the circumstances, e.g., the indoor quality in your office, the temperature in your cooling

• For both doctor and patient: Is the healing process going well?  Give the proper attention to patients who needs it. Instead of giving attention to every patient, without enough time. And even better:  You can optimize the healing process
• Does the patient follow the medical instructions? Examples: is he doing his therapy on time and in the right way. Does he take his medications?  Especially groups of risk can be monitored so that timely action can be taken if necessary

Track & Trace

• Keep grip on the presence of all your assets at all times
• Keep grip on the production process, by knowing at any moment where parts are in the phase of a production process
• Know where employees and visitors are on your premises, e.g., to avoid them entering hazardous areas. Or to warn them in case of calamities. And avoid unwanted visitors enter your premises

Optimal circumstances

• Create optimal conditions for your employees. For example in the office by regulating a good indoor climate, which fortunately is getting more and more attention. Poor air quality can worsen the well-being of employees and visitors. It can also lead to lower productivity, for example because people feel lazy when the temperature is too high.
• Some products and services are highly dependent on maintaining optimum conditions, such as cooling, for example, perishable products. When these conditions are no longer met, all products in a batch may have to be destroyed. Through IoT you can monitor whether these optimal conditions still apply. This allows you to intervene immediately when these conditions deteriorate.

See also:

The Benefits of AIOT: “Lower Costs or More Efficiency”

The post What do you want to achieve with AIOT?: Get in control of your processes appeared first on ASN Home.

• A longer lifetime for your equipment with Preventive maintenance
• Create the future. Better serve your client, with solutions which weren’t possible until now!
• More satisfied customers
• More control on your processes
• Better Security

One of the most important areas for IoT is Preventive Maintenance. With the modern solutions, you can measure if assets are working properly. And if not, you can repair or replace them, even before those assets have created damage. Examples are:

• Are the industrial motors running properly?
• Is the oil pressure and quality still ok?
• Are there any glitches in the electrical wiring?
• How can I save on energy?

With IoT, you can give your equipment a longer lifetime and thus save on repair and replacement costs. Besides, you can spare on costs because you have grip on your processes. For instance: more efficiency on energy costs, better results through optimal deployment of employees

Your customers will become more satisfied with your services. With solutions which weren’t possible until now, products can ‘think’ for their users. In IOT, users raise the expectations and will be dissatisfied with devices which do not help them.

A dashboard helps you to view in one glance which assets are working properly and which are probably in need of repair or replacement. Further, you learn when, where and how intensely your assets are being used, so you use your assets more efficiently.

In a world of connected devices, security is very important. Hackers will try to break in: to steal, to cause harm or to shut down your devices. Without security, hackers can make their entry from anywhere: from one of your devices, but also an unsecured device from one of your employee’s at home. So, in the world of IOT, security of these devices is key.

IoT solutions

IoT solutions prevent accidents from happening and reduce the response time for maintenance. As results, your costs of maintenance will be lower and equipment will have a longer lifetime through Preventive Maintenance.

Sensor measurement solutions look for deviations in normal use. So, you can act upon the first deviations and before the device isn’t working at all. Examples are:

• Monitoring the health of an industrial motor
• Monitoring oil quality in chain mechanisms
• Smart metering for saving energy

Clean sensor data required for sensor fusion and accurate decision making

Sensor data (audio, pressure, temperature, weight, etc.) have to be measured. However, most sensor signals are disturbed by:

• Powerline interference and glitches.
• Environmental factors (including: dust and other contaminants).

ASN Consultancy is the modern way of working of algorithm design to separate the wanted sensor signals from the undesirable unwanted signals. So, you can analyze and take action on clean and accurate sensor data.

Dashboard

Our tailormade dashboard solutions provide you all the information you need at one glance. So, you act on devices which are not working properly anymore. You can see the use of each device and can even predict the use in time, based on your history data. With this information, you can gain more efficiency or you can improve the satisfaction of your customers.

Security

With a world where everything is connected, security is very important. Because of its importance, its size and the results of an eventual disruption, infrastructure is an important target for terrorist and (future) enemy governments.

Do you want to learn more: https://www.advsolned.com/asn-condition-monitoring/

The post 5 Benefits of IOT for Asset Management appeared first on ASN Home.

Challenges Asset Managers

Asset managers are faced with the following challenges:

• Asset managers demand huge cost savings
• Tightening of budgets for maintenance programmes
• Less service disruptions and customer complaints
• Increasing demands from users
• No Control and optimal use of my assets
• Risk of hacking by terrorists
• Remote firmware updates

With IoT, you can give your equipment a longer lifetime and thus save on repair and replacement costs.

Your customers will become more satisfied with your services. With solutions which weren’t possible until now, products can ‘think’ for their users. Like: the health of the lamp and power quality of street lights, refrigerators which will signal to a car that owner is out of milk, a space on a parking lot is reserved for the visitor when he’s close to the office etcetera.

And the other way around: remember the first time you went in a hotel which had Wi-Fi and you thought: “great”! You’ve probably forgotten; nowadays, not having Wi-Fi has since long became a standard. In IOT, users raise the expectations and will be dissatisfied with devices which do not help them.

A dashboard helps you to view in one glance which assets are working properly and which are probably in need of repair or replacement. Further, you learn when, where and how intensely your assets are being used, so you use your assets more efficiently.

In a world of connected devices, security is very important. Hackers will try to break in: to steal, to cause harm or to shut down your devices. Without security, hackers can make their entry from anywhere: from one of your devices, but also an unsecured device from one of your employee’s at home. So, in the world of IOT, security of these devices is key.

Read about solutions: https://www.advsolned.com/asn-condition-monitoring/

The post Preventive Maintenance: 7 Challenges for Asset Managers appeared first on ASN Home.

Challenges in Water and Rail infrastructure

• Many parts of the infrastructure are decades old and have high maintenance costs
• Preventative maintenance of components (motor, chain, wiring, jackscrew, etc.) is required to reduce costs and maintain safety
• Less service disruptions and customer complaints
• No control of assets, and so no idea if assets are working properly
• New analysis methods required, as existing infrastructure cannot be dismantled for installation of traditional sensors
• Most of the infrastructure has been built when security was not an issue. This makes the infrastructure an easy target for hackers and terrorists

Decades old infrastructure

Many parts of the infrastructure are decades old. That’s also one of the reasons that they have high maintenance costs. Besides, regular maintenance consists of doing regular maintenance rounds. Here, every device gets the same attention. However, with preventative maintenance, you can focus on devices which really need it.

Less service disruptions and customer complaints

So, with preventative maintenance, you’ll not only reduce costs. But even more important: devices maintain to be safe for users. Due to timely recognition, you can plan maintenance before a little fault has led to real damage. So, you have less service disruption and more customer satisfaction.

No control of assets

Another challenge we hear is that companies have no control of assets, and so no idea if assets are working properly. Maybe companies have control of the assets they recognize. However, they have no idea if all devices are in scope and how these are connected.

New analysis methods required

The above-mentioned means that new analysis methods are required. However, the existing infrastructure cannot be dismantled for installation of traditional sensors.

Security of assets

Most of the infrastructure has been built when security was not an issue. This makes the infrastructure an easy target for hackers and terrorists

Find out how you can solve your IoT solutions with our algorithms!

The post Control and improve critical components in your waterworks and railway infrastructure appeared first on ASN Home.

How preventative maintenance saves costs and improves customer satisfaction

How to reduce maintenance programme costs, improve safety and improve customer satisfaction? This has become a challenge for companies involved in rail, water and electricity and other critical infrastructure management.

Act before a minor failure causes real damage

The assets of public infrastructure consist of expensive equipment. Replacing failing equipment is costly and inconvenient if it occurs outside of scheduled maintenance scheme. To reduce these costs, Preventative maintenance comes in. With Preventative maintenance, you can repair or replace parts which are showing signs of fatigue or early failure. Thus, with this new type of preventative or predictive maintenance programme, you can act before an (expected) little failure has caused any real damage.

And, in public infrastructure, a failed component isn’t just a failed component! For example, the failure of a water sluice causes disruption for the infrastructure as a whole: Ships and trains can’t deliver their goods anymore on time. Customers are standing literary in the cold. Or even worse.  With preventative maintenance you can cut high costs and minimise disruption.

High personnel costs and scarcity of trained personnel

In old days, mechanics and engineers would do their regular scheduled rounds of maintenance, where every device got a similar amount of attention, whether the device was in a bad state or not. With sensors, the state of maintenance of devices can be measured real-time. As such, personnel can now focus on identified problems, resulting in a much more efficient use of trained personnel and budgets.

Legacy systems and modern issues

Most public infrastructure is decades old – 30 years is quite common. In those days, engineers have managed to get a system working with a lot of effort. In their time, they were very advanced. However, in recent years, these systems got some issues:

• How does it work?
• Higher demands
• Security

How does it work?

In fact, there are two challenges:

• Knowledge has disappeared
• Keeping it working has the most priority

As said, engineers have managed those systems to work with a lot of effort. Since then, more and more functionality has been added to the system. So, the architecture consists mostly of ‘spaghetti’. To make things more complicated, the engineers who have developed the system have moved to other jobs or have even retired. If documentation was written at all -not a high priority 30 years ago- the documentation has been lost in clean-ups or found a resting place in an archive. So, in a lot of cases, a system works, however, nobody knows exactly how and which devices are being used.

The other challenge of the legacy system is that the system works. Maybe with some faults, maybe with issues which has come up in modern times. But anyway, it works: trains are running, sluices are operating and energy is flowing. The consequences what might happen when this system doesn’t work at all, are seen as greater than the ‘modern time’ issues, such as climate change. As long as nothing happens, of course.

Maybe control of one type of devices has been built through a dashboard. But: a lot of these dashboards only give a signal when a device isn’t working anymore. And so, as mentioned above, those signals are in fact too late. Besides, most control systems only work for the device itself. In modern times, communication between different systems is important. When you have control in one dashboard, you can optimally manage your assets to run your processes smoothly.

Higher demands

Customers, be it persons or companies, have raised the bar of their demands. Some examples include:

• In modern times, everything is connected. Part of a system, which can always be reached and part of an infrastructure as a whole (smart cities, smart ports). Customers expect that you are a part of their infrastructure
• For customers, a schedule is a schedule. Just in time management has become very important and customers expect you can fulfil this precision
• Customers expect that everything is running smoothly. And also, that you can tell beforehand what will happen.
• Communication: And if something happens, that you can tell its cause and the consequences. And that you can be reached whenever there is a problem: so, an unreachable customer care center (for instance call centers and internet customer care) due to work overload in communication centers increases dissatisfaction even more
• Nowadays, customers expect solutions instead of products

Security issues

Another important issue in the world of water and public infrastructure is security. When the infrastructure was overhauled some 20 or 30 years ago, security wasn’t an important issue. Nowadays, where the whole world is connected and threats can come from anywhere, public infrastructure and waterways are interesting targets. With ASN’s security programme, you’ll get control over the security of your infrastructure with military grade solutions.

Benefits

• Lower costs and a longer lifetime for your equipment with Preventative maintenance
• Better serve your clients: less delay due to timely maintenance
• Control and optimal use of your assets
• Security for your infrastructure

ASN contactless measurement, smart algorithms and alerting offers the ideal condition for this programme. The asset management team can then schedule maintenance in order to replace the failing component(s) with minimum disruption to the public, and overall lower operational costs.

Let’s make an appointment to see how we can help you to create an effective maintenance programme and reduce your Total Cost of Ownership.

The post How preventative maintenance saves costs and improves customer satisfaction appeared first on ASN Home.