Maintenance today – digital and integrated, or what?
We want to shop, move around, live and exist. Every day. This is made possible by our industry. To avoid supply bottlenecks, we must prevent failures – maintenance is coming into focus.
Every era has its technologies. Maintenance is no different. However, it has taken years and decades for digitalisation to enter this area of industry. Today, we speak of modern maintenance. But what does that entail?
One thing is clear: maintenance is essential. And it is becoming increasingly important. Our expectations are rising. Also thanks to and because of digitalisation. We want to have things, experience things, eat things, whenever and wherever we want. Ideally around the clock. This increases pressure on industry and the utilisation and running times of facilities. Downtime is death. In industry, quite literally.
Integrated and digital for maintenance success?
When modern maintenance is mentioned, two words always come up: digital and integrated. This is how maintenance should be today. While 'digital' immediately evokes associations with IT systems or mobile devices like smartphones, the topic of 'integrated' is somewhat harder to grasp. So let us first delve into these two core terms.
Integrated
Integrated means that personnel from the operational area are involved in maintenance work. This has the advantage that they are the ones most familiar with the machines and devices, as they operate them practically every day. Their facility-specific experience holds immense potential for know-how. This must be utilised for modern maintenance.
Digital
In production, 'digital' has long been the order of the day. Facilities, control room systems, environmental sensors, and much more continuously generate data that serves as the basis for acute operational decisions. So why not use this for maintenance? The analysis of such data and the application of machine learning networks can provide new insights and even predict impending failures in modern maintenance, keyword predictive maintenance.
The advantages seem obvious: digital and integrated maintenance promises intelligent processes and faster throughput times, especially as tasks and processes can be directly entered into digital systems on-site with appropriate modern IT solutions. Errors in transferring handwritten records and cumbersome paperwork are eliminated.
SRB helps – the future of maintenance thanks to SAP IT
So, on to the modern maintenance future? One might think so. However, many domestic companies are still hesitant due to the complexity and changes that such comprehensive IT solutions entail. Admittedly: the first step towards a maintenance modernisation project is difficult, as the mountain to be climbed looks quite high. But that is why we are here. We accompany you with our know-how on your journey and help you overcome the hurdles that stand in the way of your maintenance success.
As mentioned: every era has its technologies that enable new, comprehensive solutions. Today, with S/4HANA, the digital twin via SAP Intelligent Asset Management (IAM), SAP Asset Manager, and frameworks for speed-starting custom developments, there are more possibilities in maintenance than ever before. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we have created an overview of the current SAP Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) architecture by SRB.
SAP standard tools thus form the basis. Our know-how and our in-house developments, such as theSRB Maintenance Cockpithelp us tailor the maintenance solution precisely to you. Integrated and aligned with the wishes of your employees as well as your specific local conditions, for example regarding safety.
Success proves us right
What modern maintenance can look like in reality is demonstrated by numerous projects we have had the privilege of implementing with and for our clients in recent years. For example, atOMVhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofJvhKANz3M&t=868s&ab_channel=KBOriginals. Here, we implemented a solution with the OMV Field Service App that not only elevates maintenance at OMV to a new level but has also caused a stir in the industry: the app won theMaintainer Innovation Award 2020.
If you want to know more about how you too can benefit from modern, that is, digital and integrated maintenance powered by SAP and SRB, simply contact me atm.scheiner@srb.atmailto:m.scheiner@srb.at.
