IT maintenance and service solutions for enhanced machine availability

Nuremberg, Germany, At this year’s Hannover Messe, Siemens is presenting maintenance and service concepts for increasing the availability of machines and plant. Condition-based maintenance and fault detection are the basis of the solutions, such as Sinumerik Manufacturing Excellence, that are on display at the fair. They enable plant operators to achieve substantial cuts in the operating costs and expenditures connected with downtimes, repairs and spare part warehousing.

Lifecycle costs, productivity and machine availability: They are the keywords used to describe the demands that plant operators place on automation systems in order to lower the cost of production. Another requirement calls for the reduction of unit costs, they themselves being heavily influenced by the current expenditure for the operation of a plant. Holistic concepts and services for machines promise tremendous potential for the optimization of costs and expenditures over the lifecycle of a machine or plant. Increasingly important in this respect is preventive maintenance and, therefore, the plannability of downtimes. This year in Hannover, the two Siemens’ Drive Technologies and IT Solutions and Services Divisions will show new solutions for condition-based maintenance and fault detection in production, fault registration and ticketing in maintenance, and mobile devices that can be used by service technicians fault rectification.

The IT-based service concepts and processes from Siemens use intelligent sensors and programs for continuous diagnosis of the condition of a machine or plant, thereby enabling the necessary spare part supplies and related downtimes to be scheduled in good time. The scope of these solutions offered by Siemens ranges from the facility of remote access over the entire fault and maintenance management systems to the products and systems required for condition monitoring. Employing automatic processes, they make it possible to monitor the condition of a machine or plant on a continuing basis. Trend analyses and comparisons with the so-called stored plant fingerprint permit the early detection of critical developments in machine components, thus giving the plant operator more time to plan or even immediately adopt appropriate measures. Integrated reporting functions support the focused elimination of the causes of faults. Owing to its modular design, Sinumerik Manufacturing Excellence from Siemens can be readily adapted to the specific demands of any plant or application.

You can find further information on the Internet at: www.siemens.de/sinumerik/manufacturing-excellence

The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is the worldwide leading supplier of production, transportation, building and lighting technologies. With integrated automation technologies as well as comprehensive industry-specific solutions, Siemens increases the productivity, efficiency and flexibility of its customers in the fields of industry and infrastructure. The Sector consists of six Divisions: Building Technologies, Drive Technologies, Industry Automation, Industry Solutions, Mobility and Osram. With around 222,000 employees worldwide Siemens Industry achieved in fiscal 2008 a profit of EUR3.86 billion with revenues totaling EUR38 billion. www.siemens.com/industry

The Siemens Drive Technologies Division (Nuremberg, Germany) is the world’s leading supplier of products and services for production machinery and machine tools. Drive Technologies offers integrated technologies that cover the entire drive train with electrical and mechanical components. This includes standard products but also encompasses industry-specific control and drive solutions for metal forming, printing and electronic manufacturing as well as solutions for glass, wood, plastic, ceramic, textile and packaging equipment and crane systems. The services provided by the Division include mechatronics support in addition to online services for web-based fault management and preventive maintenance. With around 39,900 employees worldwide Siemens Drive Technologies achieved in fiscal 2008 total sales of EUR8.9 billion.