In-plant operations and maintenance workers follow plant best practices: Honeywell Field Advisor platform
New software developed by Honeywell around technology from Shell Global Solutions helps workers minimize unplanned shutdowns and optimize plant performance.
Honeywell (NYSE:HON) announced its release of Field Advisor, the company’s newest addition to its family of mobile productivity solutions. The company says it will help industrial facilities keep their equipment running within safe operating limits and at optimum performance. Based on technology acquired from Shell Global Solutions in December 2009, the Field Advisor software is designed to help plants to reduce costly emergency work and unplanned shutdowns by allowing mobile operators to diagnose and rectify problems in the field more easily before they escalate and result in equipment failure.
The technology records critical asset data to ensure that it falls within the plant’s safe operating limits. If the equipment is operating outside those limits, Field Advisor then guides the operator through the necessary steps to correct the problem.
“Companies are under intense pressure to operate and maintain their plants within a budget, which really amplifies the importance of the operator’s actions in the field,” says Paul Brice, director of advanced solutions, Honeywell Process Solutions. “When an asset exceeds critical operating limits, the appropriate actions are not always apparent to the operator and the wrong decision could have a wide range of consequences. Field Advisor ensures the operator considers operating limits up front, which can improve overall production.”
Brice adds that the new software platform is used in conjunction with Honeywell’s OneWireless mesh network, as well as the company’s Dolphin mobile computer devices. The solution allows a field worker to download specific tasks and instructions, and then upload results for easy reporting after the tasks are completed. This allows the field operators to adhere to best practices when conducting their rounds. It also helps plant maintenance, operations, and reliability teams share information between them more quickly, supervisors plan shift workloads more effectively, and allows new operators to be trained at a faster pace. The announcement came June 13, 2010.
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- Peter Welander, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com
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