Drive Management Systems
Case Study
Good vibrations
Water networks have large numbers of very different asset types, all key components in an important utility delivery system vital infrastructure to domestic and business users alike. To keep machines up and running 24/7 and heading off costly repair costs, maintenance and service specialists, DMS looked to AssetMinder to keep an eye out for those important machines and provide an appropriate alert system.
Centrifuges, pumps, pipes, tanks — you name it, water utility infrastructure is big, complicated and always working hard on a 24/7/365 basis. It’s a lot to oversee, often across numerous sites and small problems can become big problems if they interrupt operations and supply.
“Drive Management Systems is a company that prides itself on a service that’s truly independent” says DMS’ Allan Findlow. “We deliver diagnostic and maintenance advice based on accurate and timely reporting of equipment in the field to our customers. Service and repair is now geared towards preventing issues happening, rather than trying to fix them once they are a problem.”
“As our customer base has expanded, and within that their asset base has expanded too, site visits and regular inspections become a significant cost — and due to COVID, difficult too. So we were looking for a way to provide data that our expert engineers can analyse remotely, 24/7/365 and for that data to be as useful, insightful and revealing as if our guys were at the actual site.”
THE DATA IS THE DATA
With AssetMinder deployed, DMS was able to fit sensors to in-field assets, measuring key real-time data around vibration and stress — and make truly informed decisions about repair and proactive maintenance.
“The data produced is truly transformative to the business”, says Konektio’s Jon Hill. “When information is collected on site visits, it’s really only a ‘patchwork’ picture of that piece of equipment. With AssetMinder helping DMS ‘see’ whatever asset they want, wherever it is — 24/7/365, and see what it’s doing right now as well as its performance over time — it’s a much more complete reflection of how that asset is actually operating. That in turn help identify failure frequencies, patterns and trends in equipment to predict future problems caused by mis-alignment, bearing wear, and mountings.
DMS can also advise its parts and service partner, Hayley247, on potential parts required and future repair needs — all utilising accurate, empirical data, not a hunch.
“The key really is ‘The data is the data’,” continues Jon Hill. “It’s not guesswork, because AssetMinder allows DMS to set the alerts and diagnostic data they need. So that means they can transform a lot of the way they actually work as well, becoming less about site-visits and reporting and more about maximising the efficiency of its MRO offering — giving engineers key information and heading off expensive and disruptive issues before they occur.”
SAFE AND SECURE
Security is obviously paramount in any utility supply, but with AssetMinder’s multi-level security we achieve strong security defences.
“We could attach to control systems’ says Chief Innovation Officer Pat Nash, “Because AssetMinder is that good, but the way we’ve built this system, it simply does not need to touch any control loops or have any active interaction with their systems. It just listens and returns data for analysis.
“In these kinds of projects it’s invaluable that security isn’t an issue, however big and broad the asset and device deployment is.”
