Product category:
Industrial consultancy services
News Release from: Rockwell Automation | Subject: Maintenance services
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 03 May 2001
Maintenance solutions are financially
optimised
Rockwell Automation is less well known for its extensive and fast growing range of plant services, including maintenance and asset management.
Financially optimised maintenance solutions are tailored to fit Rockwell Automation is an acknowledged leader in plant automation, but is less well known for its extensive and fast growing range of plant services, which includes competence in maintenance and asset management The company already provides plant and maintenance services worth GBP6 million a year to over 260 UK manufacturers
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 21 Apr 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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These range from spare parts and maintenance provision to full asset management and systems engineering.
Maximising return on net assets (RONA) for clients is its main aim.
With its vast experience of manufacturing and process industries, Rockwell Automation is able to offer scaleable, modular solutions that can stand alone or form the building blocks of a total support package.
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Financially optimised plant services include: - Spare parts and inventory management - Remanufacturing and repairs - Maintenance support - 24 hour technical support - Training - Systems upgrades - Configured PC supply - Condition-based monitoring - Computerised maintenance management solutions These are not limited to Rockwell Automation products, and most automation suppliers' equipment can be included.
To determine the most cost effective package, Rockwell Automation's team of skilled manufacturing consultants first evaluate a customer's plant floor equipment, production requirements, skill levels and budget requirements.
Strategies aimed at reducing the total cost of ownership of production facilities are then developed.
The first level of support is a comprehensive Parts Management service, which spans cost effective and reliable repairs and remanufacturing, maintenance kits, exchange services and extended warranties.
At the next level, manufacturers can pick from a menu of Support Agreements designed to reduce breakdowns, maintain or improve production levels, speed product change-overs and extend equipment service life.
These initially involve a thorough Installed Base Evaluation (IBE) to assess the existing plant, spares and maintenance systems.
Manufacturers can then select the Support Agreement that best meets their requirements.
These include a 24 hour technical helpline, an engineer on standby to visit the site, provision of critical spares on-site and fully inclusive maintenance support that covers all maintenance and spares for a fixed fee.
But, as part of the global Rockwell Corporation, Rockwell Automation is able to offer far more than contract parts, maintenance and technical support services.
Manufacturers needing, for example, to upgrade obsolete systems to modern state of the art facilities can face a massive up-front investment and loss of production.
Instead, they can now call in Rockwell Automation to take over the maintenance of existing equipment and manage a gradual migration to the new systems without plant downtime or over-stretching capital budgets.
And manufacturers looking to maximise plant uptime and utilisation need to plan and schedule maintenance to reduce costly breakdowns that would interfere with production.
In today's ultra-competitive and financially accountable manufacturing environment, a plant monitoring and maintenance system has to support the production process, rather than production being forced to fit around planned maintenance shutdowns.
To achieve this goal, without inflating maintenance budgets, involves moving from maintenance strategies that are not just preventative but are also predictive.
Rockwell Automation's recent acquisition of Entek IRD enables it to offer a comprehensive range of condition monitoring (CM) products and services.
As a result of a partnership agreement with MRO.COM (formerly PSDI), Rockwell Automation is also able to integrate the market-leading Maximo Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) into its portfolio of services.
By integrating CM and CMMS into an enterprise asset management system, production scheduling can be optimised.
For example, the maintenance system could predict that an impending bearing failure will result in an unplanned and unavoidable plant shutdown.
This could then trigger the production system to carry out a rapid modelling and simulation routine to adapt to this temporary reduction in output.
One outcome might be to slow down production to extend the life of the bearing until spare parts become available or to complete a production run.
By outsourcing all or part of their Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) requirements, manufacturers can manage and contain costs while maximising availability of production systems.
Using the latest in remote diagnostic and communication techniques, Rockwell Automation's support engineers can monitor a customer's plant, control spares inventories and help integrate maintenance into the production schedule.
In addition, Rockwell Automation's comprehensive range of maintenance and asset management services enables it to meet the needs of manufacturers large and small, whether they are looking for stand alone services or a total maintenance solution. Request a free brochure from Rockwell Automation ...
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