Maintworld Magazine 1/2021

1/2021 www.maintworld.com 

maintenance & asset management 

Five Key Benefits of Improving 

Operations with Modern p 6 

Wireless Vibration Monitoring 

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW IN ASSET PERFORMANCE PG 10 PRECISION BELT ALIGNMENT AND WHAT IT ENTAILS PG 22 MONETIZING DATA IN MAINTENANCE PG 48

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EDITORIAL 

Release the 

power of data 

AFTER OVER 20 YEARS working 

with customers within maintenance, 

I still do not see much focus 

on the output of the CMMS:s. I see 

two actions all companies should 

take here. First, set the analysis 

tools free for all users and bring on 

the creativity! 

Put effort in providing a userfriendly, 

neat, and really attractive 

tool for users. Let them be amazed 

and baffled by the nice charts and 

turning tables of data. Let them 

twist the filters like there is no tomorrow. 

Throwing the figures around 

gets creativity going. Finding new 

insights and possibilities you never knew of. More results and more good decisions 

will come. New intrapreneurs will step forward. 

I am a big fan of securing good data and having valid models of analysis. Users 

not used to this will fall into easy traps and might present bad data charts… 

there is always a learning curve. 

When we within maintenance talk about KPIs and the importance to measure 

and benchmark, we absolutely need secured data and valid models. Often 

the data tools are built around that, with terrible static reports, printable, for 

a few users. I have also seen some pretty good intentions – but very little in 20 

years. 

So, the second action needed is to set a good maintenance strategy with 

defined goals and find needed data-points to measure. The more defined, the 

easier to find out your measures. Here you set a few important KPI:s (Key Performance 

Indexes) controlling your process. For the every-day running of business 

there needs to be another bunch of measures. In order to know what to do 

now, how to prioritise the day and week. 

We call it to be Data-Driven. Knowing where to put effort, by fact. No estimates, 

no fiction, but real data from all that hard work we have put into our 

CMMS:s 24-seven for years. All those years... is the data at all in good quality? – 

you will not know until you start looking. 

At Trivalo we talk about Data-Driven Maintenance in the means of making 

both strategic and operational decisions based on good data. No matter 

on what level and how manual or automated. It is important that both the 

long-term KPI:s and the operational measures are defined, communicated and 

visual for all to act upon. 

But, I am just saying. While setting your business goals and creating your 

dashboards. Do not forget to release the data for all to play with. Analysis is a 

free-form art of insights, fuelled by your creativity, and only limited by the tools 

provided. Start playing with your data and learn how to move forward. 

With love, 

4 maintworld 1/2021 

Mia Ilkko 

Senior Consultant Data-Driven Maintenance at Trivalo AB, 

B.Sc.; Cert. European Expert in Maintenance Management 

24 

The auto lubricant devices 

have evolved to become 

smarter. Many of them not 

only dispense the lubricant 

but can also set alarms based 

on excessive feedback and 

low lubricant.

IN THIS ISSUE 1/2021 

32 

Digitalisation 

in the field 

of capital goods cannot be 

viewed as an isolated trend, 

but must be embedded in 

key current trends. 

= 

38 

Keeping 

the Lights On 

and Preventing Failures. 

SPI Inspections provides 

customers with topnotch 

utility system and 

infrastructure inspections. 

6 

Five Key Benefits of Improving 

Operations with Modern Wireless 

Vibration Monitoring 

10 

14 

18 

The Day After Tomorrow in Asset 

Performance 

Next Level Energy and Alarm 

Management in ICONICS’ Latest Release 

We Succeeded, what is Next? 

22 

Precision Belt Alignment and what it 

Entails / Easy 

24 

Bearing Lubrication Reimagined: 

Remote and Real Time Friction 

Monitoring and Lubrication 

26 

Safe Operation of Software- 

Controlled Lifts 

30 

OPC UA including Ethernet TSN 

and Ethernet APL for the field: An 

intermediate goal has been achieved 

32 

Digitalisation of Production Systems: 

getting smart while keeping out of 

harm’s way? 

38 

42 

46 

Keeping the Lights On and Preventing 

Failures 

Cui Solution for Aging Plants. 

Maintaining Production During Critical 

Maintenance 

Creativity Was – and Still Is – Needed in 

Teaching and R&D Projects during the 

Pandemic Time 

48 

Monetizing Data in Maintenance: Datadriven 

Spare Parts Management – 

Part 2 

Issued by Promaint (Finnish Maintenance Society), Messuaukio 1, 00520 Helsinki, Finland tel. +358 29 007 4570 Publisher Omnipress Oy, 

Väritehtaankatu 8, 4. kerros, 01300 Vantaa, tel. +358 20 6100, www.omnipress.fi Editor-in-chief Nina Garlo-Melkas tel. +358 50 36 46 491, 

nina.garlo@media.fi, Advertisements Kai Portman, Sales Director, tel. +358 358 44 763 2573, ads@maintworld.com Layout Menu Meedia, 

www.menuk.ee Subscriptions and Change of Address members toimisto@kunnossapito.fi, non-members tilaajapalvelu@media.fi 

Printed by Reusner, www.reusner.ee Frequency 4 issues per year, ISSN L 1798-7024, ISSN 1798-7024 (print), ISSN 1799-8670 (online). 

1/2021 maintworld 5

ASSET MANAGEMENT 

Five key benefits of improving 

operations with modern 

wireless vibration monitoring 

BY JOSE VERDUGO, vibration portables and wireless product manager, Emerson 

As many manufacturing 

organisations today move 

toward wireless monitoring 

technology, they 

have more choices than 

ever before. Users have 

found tremendous savings 

through monitoring technology 

and yet have had 

to guard against drowning 

in data or merely looking 

at the big picture rather 

than details. Either condition 

has meant potentially 

overlooking issues that can 

cause shutdowns. 

RECENT EVOLUTIONS IN VIBRATION 

MONITORING technology will bring users 

beyond their previous successes 

and assist with data digestion through 

organised and understandable views 

of conditions. With new technology in 

hand, users can now more easily find 

and address the root causes of machinery 

issues. 

It is important to bear in mind clear 

guidelines while matching personnel 

abilities and available time to the newly 

evolved wireless monitoring technologies. 

Manufacturers around the globe 

who are choosing wireless monitoring 

technology have found success by focusing 

on key elements such as improved 

safety, cost of implementation, decisionmaking 

support, intuitive operation, and 

overall return on investment. 

6 maintworld 1/2021


Improved Safety 

Monitoring for vibration in field equipment 

is critical because it can signal bearing wear, 

poor lubrication, and more – precursors to 

hazardous conditions. But because safety is 

the number-one priority in manufacturing 

facilities, it is out of the question to send 

personnel for route-based monitoring into 

areas where a potential safety situation may 

arise. However, monitoring must continue. 

Recently at a UK processing plant, vibration 

on an asset indicated impending failure. 

Rather than expose personnel to risk 

by performing manual vibration readings, 

the facility chose to implement a wireless 

vibration monitoring solution. Not only did 

the technology enable technicians to make 

fewer visits to a potentially hazardous site, 

the monitor increased visibility to the condition 

before it posed additional risks. Data 

was delivered remotely away from the risk 

to personnel and the facility team obtained 

enough data to trend and find solutions. 

Evolving with the technology, this company 

could continue to improve their solution 

by shifting to a technology that enables 

them to move the vibration monitor to 

different assets for temporary monitoring. 

In addition, they could install a wireless device 

– such as Emerson’s AMS Asset Monitor 

– that could monitor up to 12 assets 

simultaneously. When fewer devices are 

required to monitor more assets, the team 

needs fewer trips to the field and gains better 

visibility. 

Cost of Implementation 

Cabling and equipment costs can prohibit 

continuous, hard-wired online vibration 

monitoring. In these cases, organisations 

have typically substituted manual measurements 

taken via handheld units. But 

quite often, manual readings do not enable 

the organisation to attain adequate 

analysis and trending because the manual 

readings require time and expertise. In addition, 

to achieve the most accurate picture 

of conditions, a facility might need a greater 

variety of sensor input options such as 

accelerometer placements. 

One power producer moved to a wireless 

solution that was versatile enough in 

its configuration and installation to deliver 

savings during implementation. The 

organisation needed to monitor a motor 

housed in a gas turbine auxiliary compartment 

where a cabled monitor would not be 

cost effective. Because the compartment 

acted as a Faraday cage, they needed easy, 

robust wireless connectivity. In addition, 

they wanted to measure other rotating 

equipment as required without overextending 

maintenance personnel. 

The solution they found included wireless 

transmission and no need for expensive 

cabling. It also included a wireless 

vibration transmitter that instantly connected 

to their network with no additional 

wireless infrastructure, such as a repeater. 

The transmitter and connected sensors 

could be moved as needed and the accelerometer 

configuration was flexible enough 

to be easily adapted to the situation. 

By embracing the next generation of 

wireless vibration monitoring – for example 

Emerson’s AMS Wireless Vibration 

Monitor – the ease and speed in which 

the power producer could implement 

monitoring of additional equipment could 

be increased greatly. With a standalone 

device, which includes both transmitter 

and sensor, installation and configuration 

becomes extremely easy. These devices, 

which can be preconfigured or configured 

onsite using a wireless gateway or handheld 

device, enable the company to place 

at any location in the facility immediately 

without needing to install and connect 

separate sensors to the transmitter. This 

gives almost instant access to readings 

and complete visibility of the health of that 

equipment.In addition, a longer battery 

life and field-replaceable batteries means 



the user can plan for less maintenance and 

fewer trips to the asset being monitored. All 

these capabilities mean faster deployment, 

less engineering, and quicker return on 

investment. 

Decision-Making Support 

Effective decision making relies on many 

factors. For example, if operators receive 

unfocused alerts or alerts presented in a 

confusing format, they can become distracted. 

To remain focused on the correct 

problems and find ways to solve them, personnel 

should have effective tools such as 

online vibration monitoring. 

Online vibration monitoring can help 

predict when a failure will occur and alert 

maintenance to prevent unexpected shutdown. 

When personnel receive alerts via 

wireless, they can more simply make the 

right decisions because they have the information 

at their fingertips. 

In addition, wireless technology is an 

enabler to help focus personnel’s attention 

on the most important tasks to enable efficiency. 

Solutions have offered alerts delivered 

as intuitive health values that many 

plant personnel can quickly interpret. 

As users evolve with the wireless vibration 

monitoring technology, they will be 

able to receive alerts and interpret great 

amounts of data from a variety of platforms. 

In fact, the latest monitoring advances 

make it possible for users, through Emerson’s 

PeakVue Plus analytics, to immediately 

determine the root cause of the defect 

on a given machine. This power can provide 

them a more sophisticated look at asset 

health, including overall values, analysis parameter 

trends, spectrums, and waveforms. 

Intuitive Operation 

Without intuitive operation, vibration 

monitors might provide data without 

follow-up from the facility team – ease of 

use is key for follow-up action. Recently, another 

UK end user needed their operators 

to have information available easily and 

quickly, so they chose to implement a solution 

where vibration data was transmitted 

directly from equipment to the control 

system. 

More than simply data, their solution 

involved an intuitive health score through 

Emerson’s PeakVue technology. The data 

could be trended to determine when the 

equipment was going to fail. This solution 

enabled improvement of maintenance 

scheduling while avoided taking equipment 

offline when failure was not imminent. And 

because the information was continuous 

EVOLUTIONS IN VIBRATION 

MONITORING HAVE PROVIDED 

AN ALTERNATIVE TO ROUTE- 

BASED AND CONTINUOUS 

MONITORING USING HARD- 

WIRED DEVICES. 

and always available, personnel did not 

need to wait for collection or its subsequent 

analysis. 

As wireless vibration monitoring 

evolves, the users of PeakVue technology 

can choose monitoring devices that are 

supported through embedded prescriptive 

analytics powered by technology such as 

PeakVue Plus. The embedded intelligence 

enables teams quickly and easily to differentiate 

between mechanical problems 

– such as rolling element bearing defects 

– and root-cause issues such as insufficient 

lubrication. 

Return on Investment 

Assets that are monitored using wireless 

vibration can significantly impact the plant. 

Facilities find that they incur reduced impact 

when make repairs are made during 

scheduled rather than unscheduled downtime. 

Return on investment is often found 

by avoiding total asset failure, which can often 

cause irreparable damage and requires 

costly replacements of entire assets. 

A recent case proved the point at a power 

company that relied on a primary motor 

for continued operation. A shut down for a 

total overhaul would have reduced output 

capacity by 200MW and cost as much as 

£50,000 in lost revenue. Using a wireless 

vibration transmitter, the facility optimised 

their time and fixed the motor when market 

conditions minimised financial impact, 

and ran throughout the interim with 

wireless vibration monitoring continuing 

through the overhaul. The data that was 

sent to the control system in that interval 

freed up maintenance to do other jobs and 

keep their maintenance schedule. 

The next step for the company could be 

to choose a wireless monitor that can be 

immediately placed on the equipment to be 

monitored without the need for any wiring. 

This less complicated and less costly solution 

helps to speeds the return on investment 

for the user. 

Conclusion 

In general, evolutions in vibration monitoring 

have provided a true alternative to 

route-based and continuous monitoring 

using hard-wired devices. Users now can 

choose a solution that provides the raw 

data for deep-diving in tandem with the 

prescriptive analytics and tools to diagnose 

the underlying problems. Wireless has built 

a foundation for strong benefits discussed 

here and has expanded so much in recent 

years that users can take those benefits to 

new heights by updating and expanding 

their wireless technology. 


ASSET MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY 

The Day After Tomorrow 

in Asset Performance 

Peter Hinssen is an entrepreneur, focused on start-ups for almost 20 years. He is a 

technologist at heart. About eight years ago, he decided to spend more time on telling 

the story about technology. He started teaching at MIT in Boston and London Business 

School (UK), and wrote a few books on how technology is changing the world. 

PETER HINSSEN BIOGRAPHY 

Peter Hissen is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, 

keynote speaker and author, Peter lectures 

at various business schools such as 

the London Business School (UK) and MIT 

in Boston. Peter has founded nexxworks to 

help organizations become fluid, innovate 

and thrive in 'The Day After Tomorrow'. 



Peter will be talking at the Asset Performance 

Awards about how companies 

and technical services can prepare for 

the future. How can you help your company 

in staying relevant The Day After 

Tomorrow? 

Peter, you will be present as a 

keynote speaker at the Asset 

Performance Awards. Can you 

explain where your interest in the 

industry comes from? 

It is a little bit personal because my father 

worked in the oil and gas industry 

his entire life, specifically Maintenance 

and everything that deals with process 

control. So, when I was a kid, it was all I 

heard from my dad coming home. And I 

think the evolution that you see in this 

industry is fascinating. New technologies 

are changing, in my opinion, tremendously: 

dealing with assets, managing 

performance, and thinking about prediction 

is going to change tremendously. So, 

I'm very excited to be part of this. 

Can you give some examples of 

technologies that will impact our 

world? 

Big Data. I mean, this is an industry that 

has always been interested in information. 

But now Big Data is becoming 

abundant. We have technologies to deal 

with that. We have machine learning, 

artificial intelligence, all these mechanisms 

of connectivity. I think if you put 

it all together, it's piling up technology 

after technology that is fundamentally 

changing how we think about how to 

deal with data. And I think it will have a 

tremendous impact on this industry. 

What do you think the main 

challenge of the industry today is? 

We're currently in a disruptive era. I 

use this word carefully, but it indicates 

a constant acceleration and the need to 

follow that speed. Lots of companies see 

a huge conflict between possibilities and 

reality. So this gap and tension between 

what is possible and what you do day to 

day is a big challenge. We need to take a 

huge leap in skills and technology. This 

is also an opportunity to become more 

critical of your company. Performance 

plays an important rule. And the reason 

why your company exists is absolutely 

core. But be careful what you wish for. 

Because once you enter the spotlight, 

you've got to deliver. Take up your role 

and realise it. 

What makes it so difficult to take up 

this role? 

Being able to tell the story and carry it 

out. Storytelling is key. IT people should 

be rock stars, but most of the time 

they're not so communicative. That's 

because they don't have the skills to tell 

their story. If you go from predictive 

maintenance to Asset Performance in a 

connected world, then you have so many 

touchpoints, that you have to broaden 

your gaze. You need more skills and 

competences. Your suppliers change. 

Your partners change. And everything 

becomes more fluid. 

In your book ‘The Day After 

Tomorrow’, you're talking about 

what is going wrong in companies 

today. What is your vision? 

Well, I have a very simple idea of how 

much time companies spend on today, 

tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. Most 

companies are very busy with today. 

And when they look at the future, they 

often extrapolate today, they think that 

tomorrow is approximately the same. 

But we're now facing so many different 

changes that there might be changes in 

business models or in technologies or 

new players coming onto the market. 

We have to think about this disruption, 

'this is the day after tomorrow', and how 

you deal with that. When I talk about 

today, tomorrow, the after tomorrow, 

many people say they dedicate 70-20-10 

percent of their time on it. The reality 

is we spend 93 percent of our time today, 

maybe 7 percent thinking about 

tomorrow and virtually none in the day 

after tomorrow. And I think in many 

industries, this was okay and in the 20th 

century. But we're now fully in the 21st 

century. That doesn't work anymore. We 

have to be much more flexible and agile. 

And that's why the day after tomorrow is 

more important than ever before. 

You will also talk about two 

interesting concepts: staying 

essential and staying relevant. How 

can we achieve that? 

Of course, you want to be essential. You 

want to do something that makes sense. 

If you do predictive maintenance, that 

is essential. If you work for customers, 

you're hoping that you are vital for 

that customer. But the other question 



is, how relevant are you? And I think 

there's a very clear difference between 

essential and relevant. And I think an 

exampleis the telecoms industry. If you 

look at telecoms 10 years ago, a telecom 

operator was essential. You needed a 

SIM card, and they were relevant, they 

gave you added value. In today’s world, 

they are still essential, because you still 

need that SIM card. But the relevance 

has dropped. And therefore, if whatever 

capacity you have in an organization, 

whatever position you have in dealing 

with the outside world, that is the core 

question, are you essential? I hope you 

are. But how can you make sure that 

your relevance doesn't go down? 

And that brings us to the maintenance 

and quality department. They 

don't add value directly to the product. 

The customer doesn't pay for 

maintenance that was necessary to 

produce his product. But it is essential. 

So, what would your tip be to 

staying relevant? 

Well, I think it's because we're in an age 

where everything is interconnected. So, 

if you look at an organization, they are 

not silos anymore. We're in this network 

age, everything is connected to everything. 

So, when you say that your customer 

doesn't pay for the maintenance 

directly, that's true, but your customer 

will feel, see, and understand whether 

this is something which is integral in 

terms of quality thinking or performance 

management. And in the end, if 

your company wants to be flexible and 

fast and agile, you have to incorporate 

that into every part of the organization. 

Every fibre, every node, every element 

has to understand that you are part of a 

bigger picture, and you have to keep reinventing 

itself to be both essential and 

relevant for the outside world. 

On the other hand, in our industry, 

there are a lot of service providers. 

They are companies that perform 

maintenance activities and make 

services. How is this new and how 

will they need to evolve? 

We're more and more in this age of networks, 

thinking about ecosystems, the 

role that they play is different. We're 

beginning to see the old "I supply a 

product and that's it" is over. It's more 

and more a service type of activity. And 

what you see is, instead of the traditional 

boundaries, we get fluidity, we have 

more and more of that network and ecosystem 

type thinking. And that means 

that you're going to have new players 

entering the market very, very quickly. 

You're going to have traditional players 

who must reinvent themselves. And you 

have different types of partnerships and 

agreements that we need to figure out. 

And I think figuring out what your role 

is, as an external provider in this sea of 

fluidity in a connected world is going to 

be very fascinating. 

This connectivity is entering a lot of 

factories. They are experimenting, 

but we see some reluctance and 

difficulties to scale up. How can you 

solve that? 

Well, I think we're in a phase where a lot 

of the technologies are emerging. Take 

something like AI or machine learning 

that's relatively new. Most people don't 

understand it very well, there is a huge 

skill gap that we need to fill, because 

we need to train and prepare people for 

that. But a lot of things are just trying 

out, companies are experimenting and 

figuring out how to apply this, but it's a 

very early game. 

If you compare that to the PC industry, 

this was the time where we had 

Commodores and Ataris, and not the 

established industry like we have today. 

We're going through that phase. And if 

you're too early, you're going to burn a 

lot of money and not get a lot of results. 

But if you wait too long, you probably 

run the risk of becoming completely 

obsolete. I think it's making sure that 

you're constantly in tune that you're 

constantly alert that you follow this as 

closely as possible and make the right 

move at the right time. But you can only 

do that if you are prepared. 

How can people prepare for this skill 

challenge? 

I think they have to make time for it. 

Time is the biggest issue. To put your 

day-to-day work at the side is difficult, 

but you really must invest in these skills. 

Experiment at first, like tinkering with a 

fuse until something blows up. There are 

so many possibilities, also online, to test 

and try out different stuff. Everybody 

talks about life- long learning, but most 

managers don't do it themselves. 

Why should people attend your 

keynote at the Asset Performance 

4.0 Conference? 

I think this is one of the most fascinating 

industries that for a long time, has 

already worked with data. But it's now 

making a quantum leap. I'd love to talk 

about how I see that evolving, I hope to 

inspire you to maybe even do more than 

what you're doing today. But above all, 

to prepare us for, I think, a very disruptive 

wave that is going to affect everyone. 

And I think if we understand this, 

we can all actually come out even better 

as a result. 

INFORMATION 

CHECK OUT more information 

on the Asset Performance 4.0 Hybrid 

Conference & Exhibition 2021 via 

www.assetperformance.eu/2021 


Scan me 

Hybrid Conference & Exhibition 

October 26-28, 2021 

Antwerp, Belgium 

The 4th Industrial revolution, IoT and predictive 

analytics are bringing unseen possibilities in 

maintenance, reliability and condition monitoring. 

The Asset Performance 4.0 Conference & Exhibition offers a 

unique opportunity to learn how new 4.0 technologies and 

fundamentals in operations, maintenance and asset 

management reinforce each other in order to achieve higher 

equipment reliability and cost performance in asset intensive 

industries. 

DIAMOND SPONSORS 

GOLD SPONSORS 

√ 

3 day conference with workshops & in-depth expert 

presentations. 

SILVER SPONSORS 

√ 

Exhibition with +50 exhibitors. 

√ 

+100 presentations to watch live or online when you want. 

√ 

Extensive networking opportunities with peers & experts. 

√ 

Keynote by Peter Hinssen (entrepreneur & MIT lecturer). 

√ 

Register now & get access to an extensive database of 

+100 recordings of the conference sessions of Asset 

Performance 4.0 2020. 

BRONZE SPONSORS 

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION NOW OPEN 

Powered by 

www.assetperformance.eu/2021

PARTNER ARTICLE 

Next Level Energy and 

Alarm Management in 

ICONICS’ Latest Release 

ICONICS is a global automation software provider of advanced industry 4.0 Webenabled 

OPC UA and BACnet certified visualization, analytics, and mobile software 

solutions for any energy, manufacturing, industrial, or building automation application. 

This year marks a few milestones. Within 2021, ICONICS will mark its 35th year of 

operations, doing so within its first full year as a group company of Mitsubishi Electric 

Corporation, itself celebrating the 100th anniversary of its establishment. 

THIS YEAR also marks the release of 

the latest version of ICONICS Suite: 

version 10.97. With this latest release, 

ICONICS has addressed a wide variety 

of customer challenges through innovative 

technological solutions and 

enhancements across its automation 

MELISSA TOPP, 

Senior Director of 

Global Marketing, 

ICONICS, 

melissa@iconics.com 

software lineup of data visualization, 

archiving/rapid retrieval, analytics, 

mobile apps, and edge to cloud connectivity. 

Some of the new additions 

include ICONICS’ connected field service 

software, CFSWorX’, integration 

with Maximo, ServiceNow, and Azure 



ICONICS SUITE VERSION 10.97 CONTAINS MULTIPLE DATA VISUALIZATION, 

ANALYTICS, HISTORIAN, MOBILITY, AND CLOUD CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS. 

Active Directory and support for load 

balancing. The Data Exporter within 

ICONICS’ high-speed data historian, 

Hyper Historian, now supports Azure 

Data Lake Generation 2 and other scalable 

cloud storage services. Also newly 

added are Sankey Diagram controls, 

available for use across any of ICON- 

ICS’ visualization environments on any 

desktop, laptop, web browser, or smart 

device. 

This issue of Maintworld highlights 

energy management and condition 

monitoring in maintenance applications. 

Solutions for both of these requirements 

are included within version 

10.97 of ICONICS Suite, as well. 

Energy AnalytiX® for Energy 

Management 

Energy management systems help to 

deliver rich platform and browserindependent 

real-time visualization 

of energy use. Such software can address 

any size application, from a single 

building to an entire campus or multisite 

enterprise. Energy management 

system software also involves monitoring, 

analyzing, and improving organizational 

assets. It helps to optimize en- 

ergy usage of buildings and equipment 

and can help identify energy-related efficiency 

issues in production processes. 

It also helps to simplify workflow for 

maintenance personnel and field operatives. 

With such software tools, users 

can create IT firewall-friendly, secure 

custom energy dashboards and kiosks 

to view reports for analysis of energy 

consumption patterns, resource usage, 

and progress on sustainability efforts. 

Maintenance personnel, site managers, 

and building engineers can quickly 

and intuitively navigate energy-related 

data and discover opportunities for improvement. 

ICONICS’ energy management system 

software, Energy AnalytiX®, provides 

open universal data connectivity 

and enterprise integration to a wide variety 

of building management systems 

(BMS), SCADA, enterprise resource 

planning (ERP), and control systems. 

Managers of commercial or government 

buildings, university campuses, 

and industrial plants can use this revolutionary 

smart energy software solution 

to configure, customize, operate, 

and improve. Energy AnalytiX includes 



built-in calculations, KPIs, analytics, 

data historian, reporting, and the rich 

visualization needed to take decisive 

action to reduce and manage utility 

costs and consumption. 

Energy AnalytiX can be deployed 

quickly in order to more swiftly 

achieve return on investment. Integration 

with a wide variety of existing 

meters, coupled with preconfigured 

charts, helps to reduce the engineering 

time involved. It can also help 

realize cost savings through informed 

decision-making, as organizations 

frequently seek ways to reduce consumption, 

monitor conditions, lower 

energy costs, and minimize carbon 

emissions. Energy AnalytiX provides 

in-depth comparison and visualization 

of energy costs. 


ENERGY ANALYTIX NOW 

UTILIZES INFORMATIVE SANKEY 

DIAGRAMS TO HIGHLIGHT 

INFORMATION FLOW. 

ICONICS energy management software 

comes with the ability to provide 

standard cost, consumption, and carbon 

reports. Charts can include consumption 

(electric, wind, solar, steam, gas, 

water, and/or cogen), costs (electricity, 

steam, water, and/or gas), conditions 

(occupants, equipment runtime, sun, air 

handling unit, zone footage, outside air 

temperature [OAT], and/or component 

count), and carbon (carbon dioxide and/ 

or methane). Energy AnalytiX can also 

integrate with a wide array of meter 

types, featuring compatibility with manufacturers 

in multiple energy-related 

categories (electric, wind, solar, steam, 

gas, water, and/or cogen), which helps 

toward quicker configuration and ROI. 

With Energy AnalytiX, users are able 

to drill down into the causes of abnormal 

energy use. Asset-based management 

provides setup and configuration 

to any level of aggregation. Users can 

drill down to specific sources of energy 

efficiencies and locate suspected consumption 

offenders. The software is also 

widely scalable, from a single building 

to a large campus to a global enterprise 

location portfolio to even an entire city. 

In the latest version 10.97 release,


FREE TRIAL DOWN- 

LOAD OF ICONICS SUITE 

VERSION 10.97 

Visit https://iconics.com/Downloads/ 

Download-ICONICS-Suite to download 

a trial copy of the latest version 

of ICONICS Suite, including both 

Energy AnalytiX and the new Hyper 

Alarm Server. 

Energy AnalytiX’ data model and sample 

dashboards have been updated to 

utilize the previously mentioned Sankey 

Diagram control. Sankey diagrams help 

illustrate information flow between 

different sources and destinations. 

The Sankey diagram expects a dataset 

with three columns: a source, a destination, 

and a weight. In runtime, the diagram 

intelligently draws the correctly 

weighted lines between each source and 

destination. Optionally, gains and losses 

can also be visualized, while the colors 

and shapes of the nodes and links can be 

extensively customized, if desired. 

Condition Monitoring and 

Improved Alarm Management 

ICONICS provides multiple software 

tools capable of condition monitoring, 

VERSION 10.97 INTRODUCES 

HYPER ALARM SERVER, THE 

NEXT GENERATION OF ALARM 

MANAGEMENT. 

as well as remote systems management. 

One aspect of condition monitoring that 

ICONICS has advanced, specifically for 

its version 10.97 release, is alarm management, 

with the result being its new 

Hyper Alarm Server product. Hyper 

Alarm Server offers ISA 18.2-compliant 

and redundant alarming using all new 

technology, allowing for better performance, 

more control, native integration 

with ICONICS product communications, 

and easy, intuitive configuration 

via ICONICS’ asset-based management 

system, AssetWorX. 

ICONICS Suite version 10.97 still 

includes the existing AlarmWorX64 

Server solution, but users are encouraged 

to experience the added benefits of 

Hyper Alarm Server. One such feature 

enables access to historical data for each 

tag, making it even easier to configure 

rate-of-change or similar alarm types. 

Another allows for unlimited related 

values, empowering users to analyze 

alarm information from a creative array 

of new angles. ICONICS believes Hyper 

Alarm Server represents the future of 

advanced SCADA systems for its unparalleled 

performance and extensive 

functionality. 

Also new in the Hyper Alarm 

Server, users are able to define alarm 

types, which act as a template or class 

for alarm tags. The type defines the 

core logic behind an alarm, its states 

or conditions, when it is evaluated, 

and more. The sample Hyper Alarm 

Server configuration includes several 

of the most common alarm types. In 

comparison, AlarmWorX64 Server 

had a set of hard-coded alarm types – 

such as digital or limit – that worked 

in very specific ways. Users with specific 

needs could not always get the 

alarm behavior they needed. Hyper 

Alarm Server alarm types give users 

the freedom to customize the way 

alarms work without having to implement 

counterintuitive workarounds 

or request product enhancements. 

Hyper Alarm Server is also available 

for edge devices running ICONICS’ 

Internet of Things compatibility software, 

IoTWorX. 



We succeeded, 

what is next? 

Back in the fourth quarter of 2019, SDT 

team assisted LUBExpert implementation 

(parallel to Condition Monitoring 

implementation) in wastewater facility 

in SE Europe, with the primary target of 

improving lubrication practice on 180 

assets (more or less 700 bearings). 

THIS TASK MIGHT sound simple and straightforward, still it 

highly depended on many real condition facts. A relatively 

small team was working on several improvements at the same 

time: Condition Monitoring (CM) and Lubrication. A small 

team, in this case, means: two technicians engaged in CM activities, 

one grease technician and the maintenance manager 

playing the role of reliability engineer, lube manager, CM engineer 

as well as many others. Certainly, it was not an easy task 

for the team, and certainly it was not as it should have been, but 

that was the reality and what was approved by decision makers. 

Obviously, that was one of those situations when management 

gives you less than you need to succeed, promising to give 

you more once you succeed. Catch-22, but it is something we 

face often, making the process more challenging and rewarding. 

To make it happen, our grease technician was trained to the 

level of LUBExpert Strategist, understanding Why job needs 

to be done, What needs to be done and How, and being able to 

perform entire setup, execution and reporting. Proper selection 

of lubricants, controlled purchase process, proper storage, 

cleanliness… all was included in the process, of course. Once 

started, the gained experience resulted in growing confidence, 

increased work efficiency, well organized work orders and 

smooth execution. Once grease guy, now LUBExpert Strategist. 

However, there was another aspect of implementation that 

was highly important for the success of the entire program. Do 

more than required with less than needed. 

Critical point of implementation was the proper positioning 

of each department (CM and Lube) and interdepartmental cooperation, 

considering available resources. The approach applied 

(knowing LUBExpert’s capabilities) was to erase departmental 

fences and silos and set it more like an army formation: 

• first line of defence – grease bearings right and eliminate 

mayor cause of failures; 

• scouting – frequent data collection and trending, share data 

and locate anomalies; 

• light calvary – collect dynamic (TWF, FFT) data for analytic 

purposes; 

• heavy artillery – deeper analysis, problem definition, root 

cause definition (and elimination). 

Lots of work and lots of tasks 

for a small team. 

As usual, Pareto’s 80:20, fits in from all angles. 80 percent of 

problems come from 20 percent of activities, 20 percent of 

problems require 80 percent of available time to be analysed … 

and so on. 

Although it may sound ambitious, we assigned first two tasks 

to our Lube team/technician: 

• First line of defence – Lubrication department job, for sure 

• Scouting – CM job, normally 

Some call it a burden too big, some think it is impossible, we 

consider it an integral part of LUBExpert strategy. Whoever 

is taking care of Lubrication, has his hands-on assets more 


frequently than anyone else in the Reliability team, and has 

the most interactive relationship with the asset. LUBExpert 

Specialist (in this case also Strategist) is collecting data for 

Lubrication purposes, has an opportunity to monitor and 

trend data before and after replenishment condition, possess 

the data collected and analysed during replenishment. 

Knowing that, LUBExpert Strategy easily takes care of 

the first two tasks, bringing huge benefits to the CM team by 

giving them the most valuable data, and consequently time! 

More available time for deeper analysis, problem definition, 

root cause search. 

At the end of the first year of the LUBExpert program implementation: 

• Lube technician took care of 35 – 40 bearings per day (per shift) 

• That includes work task preparation, data collection, 

on-site analysis based on triggered alarms, LUBExpert 

guided grease replenishment, data overview and possible 

strategy corrections, and reporting. 

• All bearings showed an excellent response (as one in 

the picture 1 below), operating at minimum friction and 

wear level: 

• Process statistics (as shown in picture 2 below) showed 

high level of performance, correct lubrication practice and 

strategy settings, as well as additional observations and condition 

assessments: 

• Q4 2020 compared to Q4 2019 shows significant decrease 

of bearings related failures in rotating assets; 

• Q4 2020 shows no Lubrication related failures, except 

ones inherited from previous period; 

• Full traceability and detailed data about each process 

achieved; 

• Data shows that most of the previously used interval and 

quantity plans were incorrect;


• LUBExpert Strategy was successfully implemented. 

In addition: 

• Lube technician delivered 12.500 Ultrasound readings to 

CM team, including static trend graphs, triggered alarms, before 

and after grease replenishment values, all relevant events, all 

taken actions; 

• Lube technician delivered 18 “Suspected bearing failure” 

warnings to CM team; 

• Lube technician delivered 10 “Safety risk” warnings to everyone’s 

attention. 

First year of the implemented program can now be safely declared 

as successful. As usual, once you succeed, there comes the question: 

“What’s next?” 

For the Lube team, “next” equals expanding the program to the 

entire plant and sustaining top performance. 

For the CM team, “next” equals covering more assets, covering 

more failure modes, digging deeper into analysis to define a root 

cause, suggesting corrections to remove root cause, and suggesting 

improvements. 

So, first, we need to look at the accomplished results and assigned 

tasks, once again emphasising the necessity to remove departmental 

division and silos mindset and conclude that both tasks 

are actually one. The question that we really needed to answer was: 

“How can the Lube team further assist the CM team to accomplish 

more with less or the same resources?” 

Again, more work on Lube tech shoulders? 

Not really, the answer is: LUBExpert Dynamic. 

LUBExpert Dynamic is equipped with an additional feature: 

collects Dynamic data (TWF, FFT) while performing usual LUBExpert 

work. No additional time needed, no additional training 

needed, no additional efforts, only additional benefits. Those benefits 

are exactly what the CM team needs to accomplish. 

Now, out of four army style operating segments, we can add 

one more to Lube team without creating any additional stress on 

our Lube tech, but freeing huge amount of time for our CM team: 

• First line of defence – Lubrication department job, for sure 

• Scouting – CM job, normally 

• Light calvary – collect dynamic (TWF, FFT) data for analytic 

purposes 

What does it mean for Lube tech during his daily work? Absolutely 

nothing. 

• Dynamic data is collected in the background. 

• Remember this from above? 

• Lube technician delivered 12.500 Ultrasound readings to 

the CM team, including static trend graphs, triggered alarms, 

before and after grease replenishment values, all relevant 

events, all actions taken. 

Now add the same amount of Time Waveform and Spectra, that 

normally requires the work of an additional technician. 

One more task off the shoulders of the CM team and a huge 

opportunity for them to increase coverage, dig deeper and have 

more time for analysis and problem solving. 

Each Condition Monitoring team knows exactly how big this 

benefit is and how it improves CM efficiency. 

Here is how it looks like in the first week of implementation. 

Bearing successfully greased with declared condition as “Suspected 

bearing failure”, TWF and Spectra collected before and 

after grease replenishment (picture 3): 

Before grease replenishment 

After grease replenishment 

Lubrication as part of Condition Monitoring? Well, shouldn’t it be that way? The first line of defence has just become a Maginot line. 


LUBExpert 

Grease Bearings Right 

DOUBLE DATA COLLECTION 

NO ADDITIONAL ATTENTION 

NO ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 

NO ADDITIONAL TIME 

The LUBExpert Dynamic Option delivers advanced analysis of bearing condition. 

During grease replenishment, dynamic data is captured in the background. 

These outcomes are fed to the condition monitoring team 

to help assess real-time bearing condition. 

sdtultrasound.com


Precision belt alignment 

and what it entails. 

JOHN LAMBERT, Benchmark PDM. 

John has a lifetime of experience measuring and 

aligning machines. He is also a contributor to the ANSI/ 

ASA standard for rotating machinery. BENCHMARK 

PDM Inc. provides the industry with instruments for 

reliable machinery installation and maintenance. 

The term Precision Maintenance is 

popular in today's maintenance world. 

What it means in a simplistic way, is 

to work to a known set of tolerances. 

FOR EXAMPLE, when we overhaul a machine 

– say a gearbox or pump – precision 

maintenance promotes that we measure 

the bearing bores not only for the diameter 

but also the ovality, how round it is. 

This is to ensure good bearing fits and 

there is a known tolerance for this work. 

Unfortunately, many may take that care 

during an overhaul but then they install 

that machine back onto a base that is not 

flat and now the machine's casing that 

they have measured precisely is distorted 

because of the base. There is also a known 

standard for base flatness however, many 

do not know this or have the capability of 

measuring it. The point about precision 

maintenance is that the precision needs 

to be all inclusive from start to finish. 

Precision Maintenance includes the 

overhaul and the installation, and it is the 


key factor in machine (asset) reliability. 

Fortunately, we have known standards 

that we can use for shaft-to-shaft 

driven machines (ANSI standard) but 

not belt driven machines. Have you 

ever conceded how imprecise belt 

driven machines are installed? And 

that it is a fact that the maintenance 

industry spends millions each year 

replacing sheaves, pulleys, and belts? 

Most of these installations are done 

well before their full life expectancy is 

reached. 

A major reason for this is that we do 

not install these drives to a standard 

tolerance as there does not appear to 

be any for belt alignment – one published 

from a recognized organisation 

like ISO or ANSI. If you search the internet 

you will find Guidelines such as 

the one below which comes from Ludeca 

who’s a known expert company in 

the field of alignment and this is one of 

the only ones we currently use.


Surprisingly, we do not see too much information from 

the belt manufacturers and what we do see is not particularly 

good. From one large North American manufacturer, in their 

Technical Information Library, they provide a paper showing 

the right and wrong way to use a string to align two sheaves. 

This is a major reason why we have premature belt failure. By 

promoting the use of string or even a straightedge, prompts 

the belief that close enough is good enough. 

The company also says that a general rule of thumb is to get 

the alignment within 0.5 degrees for V-belts. Can you imagine 

a tradesman using string and trying to get a tolerance of 0.5 

degrees? You would think the days of using a string or for that 

matter a straightedge are in the past, but they are not unfortunately. 

At a minimum you should be using a visual Laser based 

alignment system or better still, a digital laser belt alignment 

system. 

Belt drives systems have changed. It is rare to see a single 

(strand) belt drive system, most are multiple (strand) belts. We 

also have flatback (banded) V belts (as on the main picture) as 

well as timing belts which are much more common. This means 

these belt drives are much more susceptible to misalignment. To 

align these belts requires a great degree of accuracy. Rather 0.1 

degree than 0.5. We still need to measure the same parameters 

which are explained in the picture below. 

Angular misalignment in 

vertical plane 

Angular misalignment in the 

horizontal plane (aka Toe-out 

and toe-in) 

Parallel / Offset misalignment 

in the axial plane 

A combination of misalignments 

is probably most common 

Notice that in the graphic above, in each form of misalignment 

the belt runs against the wall of the sheave groove. Obviously, 

this is the cause of the belts drying out becoming hard 

and then brittle due to the increased friction. It is the reason 

why the hardened belt wears out the sheave. It is also the reason 

why sheave grooves do not wear evenly, and therefore we do not 

recommend that you use them to align the sheave. Just a small 

amount of sheave wear might cause an angular deviation when 

aligning. For example, 0.1° equals almost 70 thou (1.8 mm) offset 

at 40 inches (1 meter). If you are using a laser system, we recommend 

that you use the walls of the sheaves and align them. 

The reason why is that it is a large flat (machined) surface area 

that we can attach to and have the laser beam be parallel to this 

surface, it is the reference point from which we measure. Your 

target or detector is mounted on the other sheave wall surface. 

Now let me tell you what the most ignored issue in belt 

alignment is. It is the fact that many sheave walls (faces) are 

mismatched, meaning not the same width. When we used string, 

straightedges and even some models of visual laser system, we 

never aligned them correctly because we never compensated 

for this variable offset. And just like belt drives have changed, so 

have the tools we can use to align them. If you are using a digital 

laser system you can quite easily input the sheave wall dimensions 

and the laser system will automatically compensate for 

you. If you want precision alignment you will need a digital laser 

alignment system for this reason alone. 

Different sheave wall (face) 

width will cause problem if 

not taken into consideration. 

Left picture, As Found. Right picture, As Left. With a digital tool this can be documented. 

Another reason is that if you are trying to use Precision 

Maintenance Techniques you will want documentation. And 

a digital laser can give a quantifiable, measurable result, a 

numeric value. If we are using string, straightedge or even 

visual lasers, there is no quantifiable result. But more than 

this, it will give you a documented result including an As 

Found and an As Left result. It will also tell you whether the 

sheave wall has been compensated for. This is important 

because along precision maintenance, asset reliability goes 

hand in hand and if you did have to do breakdown analysis 

on this machine without documentation, you would only be 

guessing as to what happened during the installation. 



Bearing Lubrication Reimagined: 

Remote and Real Time Friction 

Monitoring and Lubrication 

What if we could lubricate our bearings remotely, from any device, making sure 

that the right amount and right lubricant are always used – and even better, based 

on bearing condition? Then we would address the 3 main lubrication issues which 

cause most of early bearing failures. Today this is already possible. Using ultrasonic 

sensors and single point lubrication devices, all connected to a central system, we 

can now bring lubrication practices to a whole new level! 

Prevention in place of 

monitoring 

We have a serious problem with bearing 

condition monitoring! Technology is 

making it easier and more cost-effective 

to monitor our bearings in real-time and 

as a result, we are seeing sensors and 

systems being installed on equipment at 

an exponential rate. 

There is a race from these monitoring 

systems to detect the onset of failure 

(Point P on the P-F curve) at the earliest 

possible point. And this race to detect 

a failure is a serious problem. We are 

spending more money and extra TIME 

to detect a failure when we should be 

preventing that failure in the first place. 

Addressing lubrication 

issues – the root of most 

bearing failures 

It is no secret that over 80% of 

premature bearings failures can be 

traced back to lubrication related 

issues. These issues can be put into 

three general categories: inadequate 

lubrication (over or under lubricated), 

wrong lubricant, and contamination. 

When it comes to addressing 

premature bearing failure, reducing 

the impact on just one of these issues 

can have a large impact on the bearing 

life. But when we start to address 

all three, then we can reach excellence 

in our lubrication programs. 

It’s all about the friction levels 

A lot of expertise needs to be designed into 

the bearing selection and lubrication requirements, 

no technology will likely ever 

replace the need for trained and experienced 

lubrication experts. But when it boils 

down to it, it is all about friction - that’s why 

they are called anti-friction bearings. 

Once the correct bearing is installed 

properly and the right lubricant is chosen, 

it comes down to managing that friction in 

the bearing by using the correct regreasing 

volume and frequency. Simple to understand 

but often difficult to put into practice. 



Time based lubrication 

vs condition-based: using 

ultrasound to avoid under and 

over-lubrication 

One technique is to use time-based lubrication. 

In this case, regreasing is done based 

on time, with a predetermined amount of 

grease. This method is often based on an 

ideal calculation that is not reflective of the 

real-life condition that influences the friction 

in the bearing. This often leads to under 

greasing or over greasing the bearing. 

A step-change in lubrication practices 

came with condition-based lubrication. 

Using ultrasound to measure the friction 

in real-time to determine exactly when 

lubrication (and how much) is required to 

bring the friction back to or near the ideal 

level. Moving to ultrasound-assisted lubrication 

will ensure we do not over or under 

lubricate but has still not addressed the two 

other lubrication related issues: using the 

correct lubricant, and contamination. 

What about automatic 

lubricators? 

To address these two other lubrication 

issues many have turned to automatic lubrication 

devices or auto lubers. Automatic 

WHAT IF WE WERE ABLE 

TO COMBINE THE PROVEN 

PRECISION AND BEST 

PRACTICE OF CONDITION- 

BASED LUBRICATION USING 

ULTRASOUND WITH THE 

CONVENIENCE, SAFETY, AND 

ACCURACY OF AUTOMATIC 

LUBRICATION DEVICES? 

lubrication provides a safer and more convenient 

method of supplying the precise 

amount of lubricant into the bearings on a 

more frequent basis. 

These devices ensure we always use the 

correct grease stored in the device but also 

reduce or eliminate the possibility of contamination 

caused by the operational environment. 

These devices are time-based and 

set to dispense lubricant on a set frequency 

or run time. 

The auto lubricant devices have evolved 

to become smarter. Many of them not only 

dispense the lubricant but can also set 

alarms based on excessive feedback and low 

lubricant. 

The best of two worlds: 

SmartLube – single point 

lubricator, remotely operated, 

based on friction levels 

We have two solutions addressing the different 

aspects of the common lubrication 

issues. On one side we have ultrasoundassisted 

lubrication, using friction to determine 

when and how much lubrication is 

required. Combined with good lubrication 

practices, it will provide benefits but still 

requires an investment in time and training 

to ensure the proper lubricant is used to reduce 

the potential of contamination. 

On the other side, we have automatic lubrication 

devices ensuring the correct, contaminant-free 

lubricant but still based on 

time or running hours versus the condition 

or friction in the bearing, often still leading 

to not optimizing lubrication frequency. 

What if we were able to combine the 

proven precision and best practice of condition-based 

lubrication using ultrasound 

with the convenience, safety, and accuracy 

of automatic lubrication devices? We would 

then have a solution that allows us to lubricate 

our bearings only when required by 

measuring friction and ensuring we always 

use the correct, contaminant-free lubricant 

every time. That’s exactly what the Smart- 

Lube from UE Systems does. 

Lubricate based on friction, 

from any device, anywhere 

When we use technology to make all this 

remotely operated, we can now monitor 

the real-time friction of our bearings and, 

when needed, remotely dispense the correct 

lubricant. All this with the confidence 

that the lubricant is getting to the bearing 

with real-time alerts and notifications from 

any internet-connected device, anywhere 

in the world! 

The OnTrak SmartLube by UE Systems 

has the power of real-time bearing 

friction monitoring and the convenience, 

safety, and accuracy of single-point bearing 

lubricators. Lubrication experts can now 

lubricate remotely with confidence from 

anywhere, anytime, on any device. 

How does it work? 

This disruptive device works with a simple 

concept: ultrasonic sensors are permanently 

mounted on the bearings to monitor 

friction levels. All this data is sent to a 

central processing unit – the OnTrak – and 

can be viewed in dashboards using any internet-connected 

device. The OnTrak then 

is also connected to single point lubrication 

devices. Based on the friction levels and on 

setup alarms, we now have the possibility to 

tell the OnTrak that a certain bearing needs 

lubricant. The OnTrak will then instruct 

the SmartLube – single point lubricator – to 

dispense lubricant, just the right amount. 

And the best part: all can be done remotely, 

anywhere, anytime. 


LIFT SAFETY 

Safe operation 

of softwarecontrolled 

lifts 

Is this lift safe to use until its next periodic inspection? 

Lift experts and maintenance personnel are expected 

to answer this question clearly and unambiguously – 

potentially challenging in practice, as safety functions 

in modern lifts are software-monitored and digitally 

controlled. The solution is based on effective and 

continuous verification of the firmware’s product 

safety and its safety in use. 

TEXT and PHOTOS: DR. ROLF ZÖLLNER, TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH 

TO ENSURE LIFT SAFETY even in the 

presence of faults, demands on lift safety 

components such as safety gears have 

always been subject to high demands. 

In Germany the same as in the rest of 

Europe, lifts may only use safety components 

that have passed type examination 

(assessing design, construction, material, 

workmanship, load limits, etc.) and 

proved that they always fulfil their safety 

functions reliably. 

Type examined for safety 

functions 

As technological change leaps forward, 

many safety functions that used to be 

mechanical are now embedded systems, 

monitored and controlled by hardware 

and software (HW/SW) systems. Modern 

lifts contain safety circuits, with a 

typical architecture including sensors, 

logic units and actuators (hardware), 

that digitally generate, process, evaluate 

data (software) and trigger actuators. 

Lift shaft information systems, for 

example, identify safety-relevant faults 

in the dynamic behaviour of the lift and 

reliably place the lift in a safe operational 

state. In regular operation they monitor 

the lift’s position whilst travelling as well 

as its levelling accuracy, and allow the 

precise measurement of other dynamic 

parameters such as acceleration and 

speed. 

The qualified data provided by these 

systems can be used to identify safetyrelevant 

faults and initiate effective 

countermeasures. In this context the 

HW/SW system must reliably identify 

all hazardous operational states and 

process them correctly, the detection of 

overspeed travelling being one example. 

On the other hand, however, the system 

shall also minimise “false positives”, 

such as triggering the safety gear unnecessary 

in regular safe operation. 

Stickers raise questions 

Inspectors often find control units 

bearing only a sticker with the version 

number of the installed software version 

(SW) but no indication of when the 


LIFT SAFETY 

SW TESTING AND 

QUALIFICATION ARE ESSENTIAL 

PARTS OF TYPE EXAMINATION. 

sticker was affixed or whether the information 

is still up-to-date and correct. 

Has the SW been updated meanwhile, 

or perhaps even a new version installed? 

If so, is the update qualified and suitable 

for the HW-setup, who performed the 

update or installation and why, and does 

it impact on the safety functions? When 

the lift is connected to the Internet, is 

manipulation by unauthorised parties 

excluded? Can the company rule out unauthorised 

or unintentional manipulation 

by, say, a service technician? 

In periodic inspections, these questions 

are often hard to answer. The 

inspectors must search for evidence, 

review documentation and access authorisations 

and, in particular, check test 

results and information from the original 

type examination, which informs 

about the system configuration and the 

SW installed in the examined type that 

was approved for use in a safety function 

… and of course qualified SW-updates. If 

the experts cannot determine without 

doubt that the control unit SW is still the 

same as in type examination, they cannot 

confirm that its use will be safe. 

Working together: 

Hard- and software 

SW testing and qualification are thus 

clearly essential parts of type examination 

as they ensure the functional safety 

of the lift system in case of a fault. 

While SW updates may be executed 

and new versions developed and installed, 

the important principles of the 

safety life cycle of SW development must 

be complied with in the same way as it is 

done with HW. Yet, this is not always sufficiently 

guaranteed. 

The methods and qualities for ensuring 

the reliability and effectiveness of 

safety-related functions required in SW 

development differ from those required 

for hardware components. That is because 

SW is subject to systematic and 

IEC 61508 “Functional Safety of Electrical/ 

Electronic/Programmable Electronic 

Safety-related Systems (E/E/PE)” 


LIFT SAFETY 

Directive 2014/33/EC of 

the European Parliament 

and of the Council of 26 

February 2014 on the 

approximation of the laws 

of the Member States 

relating to lifts and safety 

components for lifts 

DIN EN ISO 9001 “Quality Management Systems – Requirements” 

intended errors only – failure rates and 

reliability data cannot be calculated as 

it is common practice in HW qualifications. 

All professional methods are characterised 

by typical quality assurance 

activities as clear goals, instructions, 

responsibilities, and authorities. Feedback, 

meetings, test environments and 

simulations keep developers informed of 

important findings about shortcomings, 

incompatibilities, programming errors 

or malfunctions, while milestones in 

important project phases ensure sourcecode 

verification and SW validation. In 

this context, experts rely on traceability, 

the four-eye principle (two-man rule) 

and other proven and tested quality assurance 

measures to prevent systematic 

faults. 

Unlike HW, SW is not subject to wear 

and tear, i.e. there are no random faults. 

Causes of systematic faults include inadequate 

implementation of the requirements 

in SW specifications, unsystematic 

use of anchor links and variables or 

insufficient test coverage. These faults 

must be excluded through efficient quality 

assurance. 


LIFT SAFETY 

Functional safety 

requirements 

Safety-related electrical, electronic and 

programmable electronic systems (E/E/ 

PE systems) are considered to achieve 

the intended risk reduction if they fulfil 

the requirements of the IEC 61508 series 

of standards [1]. Part 3 of this series 

specifies the requirements regarding 

safety-related software. This part defines 

safety life cycle, tools to be used and 

the documentation quality. It is thus 

particularly relevant for software and 

applies to all PESSRAL (=Programmable 

Electronic Systems in Safety-Related 

Applications for Lifts) in the scope of Directive 

2014/33/EU [2] in the EU. 

In addition to special software-related 

requirements, IEC 61508 also addresses 

general requirements for safety 

functions realised as HW/SW systems 

which ensure reliable achievement of 

the necessary Safety Integrity Level 

(SIL) which indicates the expected risk 

reduction to be achieved through the 

specific PESSRAL. 

A functional safety management system 

according to IEC 61508 is critical in 

this context. Like the ISO 9001 standard 

FEEDBACK, MEETINGS, TEST EN- 

VIRONMENTS AND SIMULATIONS 

KEEP DEVELOPERS INFORMED OF 

IMPORTANT FINDINGS ABOUT 

SHORTCOMINGS, INCOMPATIBILI- 

TIES, PROGRAMMING ERRORS OR 

MALFUNCTIONS. 

[3], it establishes quality assurance along 

the supply chain, demanding that HW 

and SW suppliers, but also inspection 

organisations establish functional safety 

and apply it correctly. 

Furnishing proof of 

safe lift use 

The existing system configuration must 

thus be documented in an equally thorough 

and traceable manner as every 

safety-related change to the lift system 

(e.g. sensor replacement, firmware 

update). Compliance with this requirement 

is generally ensured in the form 

of a suitable configuration management 

system. 

In periodic inspection, a sticker or note 

with a QR code is often found in the lift 

documentation. By scanning the code and 

entering the correct password, the expert 

can access the entire documentation of 

the lift. The digital file includes all relevant 

information at a glance. In case of remote 

software updates, the expert verifies the 

integrity of data transmission. 

Further evidence and certificates by 

accredited bodies then prove that cybersecurity 

measures correspond to the state 

of the art and that the lift control unit is 

protected against software manipulation 

and malware. Information on these aspects 

can be found in the IEC 62443 series of 

standards [4]. 

This type of documentation answers all 

questions on IT security and functional 

safety, enabling experts to confirm that use 

of the lift will be safe until the next periodic 

inspection. This “futuristic” form of verification 

has already become reality as all 

stakeholders have realised that it supports 

easy and continuous verification of lift 

safety, which benefits everybody – and lift 

users in particular. 

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OPC UA including Ethernet TSN 

and Ethernet APL for the field: 

AN INTERMEDIATE GOAL 

HAS BEEN ACHIEVED! 

At SPS 2018, in Nuremberg, Germany the FLC initiative was founded 

under the umbrella of the OPC Foundation. A total of 27 companies, 

including the largest automation manufacturers in the world, have joined the 

initiative's Steering Committee, supporting it financially as well as with man-power 

and technical know-how. 

PETER LUTZ, OPC Foundation, peter.lutz@opcfoundation.org 

THE COMMON GOAL is to expand the scope 

of OPC UA down to the field level and to 

establish OPC UA as a uniform and consistent 

communication standard in factory 

and process automation. In the technical 

working groups, which are open to all 

members of the OPC Foundation, a total of 

over 320 experts from more than 65 companies 

are currently working to develop 

appropriate concepts and specifications. 

OPC UA at the field level - the 

system architecture 

The extensions specified by the FLC Initiative 

are based on the OPC UA Framework 

(IEC 62541), which enables a secure and 

reliable, manufacturer and platformindependent 

information exchange. Controllers 

and field devices support both, the 

connection-oriented client/server communication 

model and the publish/subscribe 

extensions, which are indispensable for 

communication at the field level due to the 

corresponding requirements for flexibility, 

efficiency and determinism. The security 

mechanisms specified in OPC UA are also 

used, which, among other things, support 

authentication, signing and encryption of 

the data to be transported and can be used 

for both client/server and publish/subscribe 

communication relationships. 

The initial release candidate of the FLC 


Initiative, completed in November 2020, 

consists of four specification parts (OPC 

UA Parts 80-83) and focuses on C2C communication 

(controller-to-controller) for 

the exchange of process and configuration 

data by means of peer-to peer-connections 

and a basic diagnosis. 

Work on the safety solution for OPC UA 

(OPC UA Safety) is also very advanced. A 

first OPC UA Safety specification, which is 

based on client-server mechanisms which 

arose from a Joint Working Group with 

Profibus & Profinet International (PI), was 

already adopted in November 2019 (Part 

15, OPC 10000-15). A revision of the OPC 

UA Safety specification will be available 

shortly, which describes the extensions for 

OPC UA publish / subscribe and the parameterization 

of safety participants. The 

special thing about the safety concept for 

OPC UA is, among other things, that safe 

participants can be dynamically integrated 

into the communication, with a unique 

identification, even while a machine or system 

is in operation. 

Progress can also be reported with 

regard to motion. A working group has 

been developing an OPC UA-based motion 

solution since mid-2020. OPC UA Motion 

comprises the specification of motion control 

functions for various types of motion 

devices such as controllers, standard drives, 

frequency converters and servo drives. The 

FLC Steering Committee has agreed to 

base the work on the CIP Motion and Sercos 

specifications and to adapt them to the 

OPC UA information modeling and system 

architecture, taking into account the relevant 

Industry 4.0 use cases. The fact that, as 

with safety, existing concepts and specifications 

are being used, the specification work 

can be significantly accelerated. 

The combination with TSN, APL 

and 5G 

The OPC UA Framework is fundamentally 

transport-agnostic and can therefore be 

flexibly used with various underlying communication 

protocols and transmission 

physics. Ethernet Time-Sensitive Networking 

(Ethernet TSN) and the Ethernet Advanced 

Physical Layer (Ethernet APL) are 

considered by the OPC Foundation as important 

elements of the strategy to expand 

OPC UA to all use cases and requirements 

in factory and process automation and the 

vision to create a completely scalable, industrial 

interoperability solution. 

The combination with TSN 

By using Ethernet TSN, deterministic 

data transmission via OPC UA is facilitated, 

which is particularly indispensable for 

demanding automation applications. In 

addition, TSN allows different applications


the supply of energy and data via a common, 

twisted 2-wire cable, and protective measures 

for safe use in hazardous areas. This makes 

Ethernet APL the enabling technology for 

the use of OPC UA and other Ethernet-based 

protocols in the process industry. Due to the 

special importance of this technology, the 

OPC Foundation joined the Advanced Physical 

Layer (APL) project group in June 2020 

to develop and promote APL together with 

other non-profit organizations and various 

industrial partners. 

The combination with 5G 

Data exchange via OPC UA is not limited to 

wired or wireless Ethernet communication. 

Support for the 5G mobile communications 

standard is also on the OPC Foundation's 

development horizon. The mapping to 5G 

will be seamlessly integrated into the existing 

OPC UA architecture, so that all protocol and 

profile extensions of the FLC initiative can be 

used, not only via Ethernet and Ethernet TSN, 

but also via 5G in the future. 

and protocols to be operated using standardized 

hardware and a common network 

infrastructure. This enables convergent 

industrial automation networks to be 

implemented in which various IT and OT 

protocols can coexist. A Working Group of 

the FLC Initiative is currently working out 

which TSN sub-standards shall be mandatory 

for OPC UA-based end devices and 

infrastructure components to meet the 

specified requirements for performance, 

flexibility and ease-of-use. The OPC Foundation 

has given a clear commitment to the 

TSN-IA (Industrial Automation) profile, 

which is being developed by the IEC/IEEE 

60802 working group. For this reason, the 

OPC Foundation has entered into liaison 

agreements with the standardization bodies 

IEC SC65C and IEEE 802.1. 

The combination with APL 

Ethernet APL describes a physical layer 

for Ethernet that was specially developed 

for the requirements of the process industry. 

Ethernet APL enables data transmission 

at high speeds over long distances, 

Figure: Semantic interoperability with OPC UA from the sensor to the cloud 

Summary 

The OPC UA (IEC 62541) framework, with 

extensions for the field level, specified by the 

FLC Initiative, in combination with underlying 

communication standards such as APL, 

TSN, and, in the future, 5G, offers a complete, 

open, standardized and interoperable solution. 

It not only fulfills the requirements of 

industrial communication, but, at the same 

time, enables consistency and semantic interoperability 

from the field level to the cloud 

and vice versa (Fig. 5). With this approach - in 

combination with the various companion 

specifications - information is made available 

with a standardized semantics directly at the 

data source. 

Use cases to consider: A flow meter offers 

directly standardized "OPC UA flow 

measuring data" the moment the APL cable 

is plugged in. And analogously, servo drives 

directly process standardized "OPC UA 

drive setpoints” and provide standardized 

“OPC UA actual drive values” as soon as 

they are integrated into a machine network 

with Ethernet TSN. 

FURTHER INFORMATION 

AND DOWNLOADS: 

• FLC Initiative Technical Paper 

• APL White Paper 

• FLC webinar presentations / 

recordings 

WWW.OPCFOUNDATION.ORG/FLC 


DIGITALISATION 

Figure 1: Digitalisation of production systems 

Digitalisation of production 

systems: getting smart while 

keeping out of harm’s way? 

When embarking on their digitalisation / IIot course, machine and plant manufacturers 

are often unsure how to approach things, which steps come first, which can wait 

and which may be entirely superfluous. This article sums up the current experiences 

of mechanical engineering customers of the HARTING Technology Group and shows 

how this important but also tremendously multifaceted topic can be mastered. 

THE TOPICS OF DIGITALISATION / IIOT of 

production systems are omnipresent 

in the general reporting media, as well 

as featuring heavily in the specialist 

media. More and more new keywords 

are emerging in the process. Companies 

such as Amazon, Uber & Co. are often 

cited as examples, demonstrating to the 

whole world how digitalisation strategies 

can be used to achieve economic success 

through the consistent digitalisation of 

JAKOB DÜCK, 

DIPL.-ING. 

Global Industry 

Segment Manager 

online trade and logistics (Amazon) or 

through the digitally mediated use of 

existing resources (Uber). Consequently, 

OEMs of capital goods are also asking 

themselves: Can we achieve similarly 

rapid success with digitalisation, and if 

so, how? 

First of all, the topics of digitalisation 

/ IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) 

for production systems need to be further 

narrowed down. We will consider 

possible digitalisation steps along the 

typical machine lifecycle (VDMA [1]), 

or more precisely: only those measures 



that relate to products, services or other 

performances that can be offered to an 

end user. We will not consider entirely 

new technologies and business models 

which are technically conceivable, but 

currently have no legal framework (such 

as "Machine-to-Machine Order & Payment", 

for example). 

One fundamental aspect should be 

mentioned in advance. Some experts 

question whether digitalisation and IIoT 

technologies in mechanical and plant 

engineering have any potential at all to 

bring about fundamental or even disruptive 

changes in existing business models. 

As the author, business angel and former 

CTO of IBM, Dr. Gunter Dueck, comments 

in this context [2]: "When the 

Deluge comes, build ships, not dikes ... Are 

we building ships to set sail to the digital 

future continent? That would mean that 

we are looking for digital innovations that 

would shape our new age”. The study 

"Digitalisation in Mechanical Engineering" 

by the Hans Böckler Foundation in 

2018 [3] sizes things up in more concrete 

terms and quotes an expert from a German 

company: "We will definitely remain 

mechanical engineers and not become a 

software house. But we need software and 

networking to sell our machines better 

and make sure that they remain attractive. 

Based on digitalisation, we want to 

help customers to solve their problems better. 

Above all, we want to leverage the digital 

potentials to ensure that no one comes 

between us and our customers. This is a 

forward strategy, coupled with a hedging 

strategy, so that no disruptor - Amazon, 

Google, Microsoft or similar players - ends 

up alienating us from our customers". In 

the final instance, competitive pressure 

leaves OEMs for capital goods no other 

option: they must face up to the emerging 

digitalisation! 

So it is not a question of whether, but 

how. The current state of digitalisation 

and the necessary priorities in mechanical 

and plant engineering, however, are 

assessed quite differently by the parties 

involved. The IMPULS Foundation of 

the VDMA, for example, summarised 

the state of affairs in the foreword to a 

2016 study [4] as follows: "Industry 4.0 

has arrived in German mechanical and 

plant engineering. Companies are taking 

a leading role, especially as providers of 

digitally networked technologies and services 

... For customers around the world, 

additional added value is being created”. 

Gunther Kegel, Chairman of the 

Board of Pepperl+Fuchs and current 

ZVEI President commented as follows 

in an interview in June 2018 [5]: "However, 

I do think that ... our pace moving 

forward is rather slow. The possibilities 

are so diverse that we have to choose very 

consciously for which of the many promises 

resources are used, degrees of freedom 

are allowed and perhaps something new 

will be established. It has to be weighed up 

what has to be implemented and what not 

yet, because it still seems too far away." 

The statements show how differently 

the situation in mechanical engineering 

is assessed by the actors themselves. At 

the end of 2019 [6], Commerzbank AG 

attempted a quantitative assessment of 

Figure 2: Modularity and scalability 

as exemplified by HARTING Ethernet 

interfaces. 



digitalisation in the German mechanical 

engineering industry: "A decisive development 

towards the digital company is the 

integration of platform solutions, both at 

the process and service levels as well as at 

the sales level. In the meantime, three out 

of four companies in the sector state that 

such IIoT platforms are important for 

them, and almost 30 percent are already 

using corresponding solutions". This 

means that more than half of the German 

machine and plant manufacturers 

had not yet taken any action on the topic 

of digitalisation / IIoT. The situation is 

similar in other countries with a comparable 

mechanical engineering industry. 

But what success patterns can be observed 

among mechanical engineering 

customers of the HARTING Technology 

Group and what concrete steps can be 

recommended? 

As an OEM for production systems, it is 

important to identify the most important 

players in the field of digitalisation / 

IIoT in the industry - and consider their 

role, capabilities and interests (see also 

VDI/VDE Status Report [9]): 

• OEMs - providers of individual machine 

modules or complex machines 

/ systems - have the know-how to 

offer machine users the key functions 

as the most important differentiating 

feature in an economically 

successful manner, and to expand 

these functions to include digital 

IIoT components and services; 

• Suppliers of automation components 

- suppliers of PLC, CNC, 

Figure 3: HARTING T1 Ethernet 

connector for SPE technology in 

Ethernet interfaces. 

DIGITALISATION IN 

THE FIELD OF CAPITAL GOODS 

CANNOT BE VIEWED AS 

AN ISOLATED TREND. 

industrial PC, HMI, drive systems, 

measurement technology, sensors 

etc. - have been mainly producing 

digital controller-based systems; 

these use digital signals and information 

for the direct control of machines 

and processes and can also 

easily aggregate these further; 

• Software providers for production 

control at the factory/enterprise 

level - providers of ERP, MES 

and similar management software 

systems - command an extremely 

high level of expertise in the control 

of business processes and handling 

of large data volumes; however, they 

rarely have direct access to machine- 

and process-related data; 

• Platform providers for new 

business models - still poorly represented 

in the capital goods sector 

- are well-known names in the B2C 

sector, e.g. Amazon & Co. But there 

is also activity in B2B, as the growing 

demand for subscription models 

("Pay per Use", "Pay per Month", 

"Pay per Unit" etc.) is raising hopes 

among these providers of being able 

to establish themselves in the mar- 

ket with benefit and service-oriented 

models; 

• Associations and co-operations 

for digitalisation and IIoT - strategic 

alliances between mechanical 

engineering and software companies 

– are frequently pursuing the goal 

of creating an open, manufacturerneutral 

IIoT environment and corresponding 

standards based on leading 

software and communication 

technologies (e.g. Open Industry 4.0 

Alliance: Endress + Hauser, KUKA, 

MULTIVAC, Pepperl + Fuchs, SAP, 

SVA, Voith et al.; Open Manufacturing 

Platform: BMW and Microsoft, 

umati: machine tools, etc.). 

• Users/operators of machines 

and plants - on the one hand hold 

the greatest expert knowledge in 

the everyday use of machines and 

plants and the associated technologies; 

they also know the most about 

the problems in the background; 

on the other hand, they are also the 

strongest "beneficiaries" of ongoing 

technical development, including 

digitalisation in all its facets. 

Moreover, digitalisation in the field of 

capital goods cannot be viewed as an 

isolated trend, but must be embedded in 

key current trends. The most important 

ones are: 

• "Industry 4.0 / industrial production 

of individual products" - End users 

expect an increasingly high variability 

of manufacturing systems: it 

must be possible to manufacture the 

widest possible range of products in 

small to medium quantities harnessing 

the same system; 

• Production plants must be scalable 

and offer options for cost-effective 

subsequent expansion of existing 

systems in terms of capacity and 

output; 

• Declining OEM margins on new installations 

combined with high end 

user expectations for maintenance 

and service make the expansion of 

LCC-based business models (LCC 

= Life Cycle Costs [1]) with new 

business concepts (including maintenance, 

service, retrofit services, 

e.g. "Predictive Maintenance") more 

and more economical for OEMs as 

well, and therefore more meaningful; 

• Users' expectations of the interoperability 

of machine modules and 

sub-systems are constantly on the 


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rise; machines and machine modules 

from different suppliers should be 

as easy as possible to combine in a 

single production line. This results 

in greater comparability and tougher 

competition for OEMs. 

All these requirements can only be reconciled 

very efficiently in machine and 

plant construction, both in technical and 

economical terms, if production systems 

are consistently modularised, scalable in 

various stages of expansion and, in the final 

instance, also networkable. Only with 

modular networked machines will 

one be economically successful in the 

long term - more details are described in 

the HARTING article on modularisation 

"How granular can production technology 

be?" [8]. So it is precisely the modularity 

and the possibilities of scalability and 

expandability of existing systems - a "state 

of the art" of "hardware" in modern mechanical 

engineering - which from today's 

point of view is the key to the success of 

digitalisation (IIoT)! 

This is also illustrated by two examples 

from "related" areas: 

• The modularisation of today's 

industrial PLC, CNC and HMI systems 

is proverbial. The respective 

hardware and the development environment 

involved here is designed for 

each concrete application according 

to the principle of "only as much as 

necessary"; but if necessary, these can 

also be designed for subsequent upgrades, 

which applies in particular to 

the data interfaces; in this case, subsequent 

expansion, the "growth" of 

control software in delivered systems 

is in principle no problem - and only 

limited by the know-how of the given 

OEM supplier; 

• The scalability of high-performance 

drive systems consisting of a 

servo-inverter and a servo-motor is 

nowadays very often not realised by 

the manufacturer via the hardware, 

but only through the software (similar 

to the "chip tuning" of combustion 

engines). Consequently, the hardware 

is identical for simple and "high-end" 

products, and only the software determines 

the functionality and performance 

of a concrete system at the 

customer's site. 

Since the economic success of digitalisation 

in the mechanical engineering industry 

can vary greatly from segment to segment, 

and depends among other things on 

company focus and business models, we 

Figures 4 and 5: HARTING PushPull RJ45 and M12 X-coded - typical high-performance 

data interface in mechanical and plant engineering. 

will not make any recommendations here. 

In answering these questions, you 

should refer to current studies: e.g. "Industrie 

4.0 Barometer / Summary 2019" 

by MHP [9], the "Market study industrial 

communication / Industry 4.0” (“Marktstudie 

Industrielle Kommunikation / 

Industrie 4.0") by VDMA / M. Rothhöft 

[10] or the very recent study “Customer 

centricity as opportunity for the digital 

breakthrough" (“Kundenzentrierung als 

Chance für den digitalen Durchbruch") by 

VDMA / McKinsey & Company [11]. 

How can digitalisation 

be shaped and designed 

successfully for an OEM? 

Evaluating the experience of HARTING 

customers in different sub-segments of 

the mechanical engineering industry and in 

different countries, three aspects must first 

be considered: 

1. The functions and existing software elements 

of the basic, initial system must be 

prioritised: 

• Key functions that reflect the core competence 

of the OEM; 

• Basic functions that apply across the 

entire system, but do not impact on the 

core know-how; 

• Add-on or auxiliary functions that are 

secondary for the OEM and the end 

user, and are usually purchased as 

sub-systems; 

2. In the next step, collect the expert 

knowledge of the end users (customers) 

and own experts relevant to possible digitalisation 

projects and give preference to 



Figure 6: Han-Modular: 

established hybrid power and 

data interface for sophisticated 

and demanding industrial 

applications. 

high-priority functions and software elements. 

Possibly compare with the knowhow 

of competitors and develop a list of 

requirements. This list must be modular 

throughout and as specific as possible in 

terms of prioritised functions and software 

elements; 

3. Now it is necessary to assess the feasibility 

of digitalisation for individual 

functional modules; in this step it is advisable 

to involve all in-house OEM experts 

along the performance and service 

provision chain - development & design, 

project planning & sales, production & 

assembly, documentation, service & aftersales 

services. Moreover, assessments 

can be obtained from external specialists 

and any specifications or standards that 

have already been drawn up can serve as 

a template (e.g. by umati). Remember the 

sentence: "We will definitely remain mechanical 

engineers and will not become a 

software house". 

The biggest challenges for OEMs in 

these steps are: 

• The contradiction between the diverse 

individual requirements of the 

customers on the machines and the 

economic necessity to keep the number 

of modules / processes required 

for this (especially for key functions) 

small. OEMs are already solving 

this problem today by consistently 

"breaking down" their systems into 

logical units and pursuing modularisation 

- in order to act economically 

when digitalising here, the following 

should be considered. 

AS MUCH EXISTING technological and 

machine-related data as possible should 

be used and aggregated at the "lowest" 

modular level for future digitalisation 

INTERFACES PLAY AN 

IMPORTANT ROLE IN MODULAR 

NETWORKED PRODUCTION 

SYSTEMS. 

projects, i.e. utilising existing sources, data 

and machine and process models that are 

already in place. Particular attention should 

be paid to the previously unused or little 

used "intelligence" of the automation components, 

such as drives, sensors for machine 

or process states, etc. 

AT ALL HIGHER levels (edge and above) the 

most open, future-oriented standards possible 

for physical interfaces should be relied 

on, as well as the latest software and communication 

protocols. 

• Too broadly designed and not very 

concretely elaborated targets in combination 

with unduly high expectations 

regarding the economic effects of 

digitalisation will result in frustration. 

On the one hand, relevant projects are 

often overloaded with expectations 

on the part of the OEM management, 

while on the other hand, they are also 

insufficiently equipped with resources. 

For the development, implementation 

and ongoing support of digitalisation 

projects, it is therefore advisable not 

to want to achieve everything right 

away. Rather, the following should be 

considered: 

SUB-PROJECTS should be defined in terms 

of modules and focus on high-priority key 

functions; 

THE DESIGN of the interfaces on the 

physical level as well as on the data level 

should always correspond to the latest 

state of the art and be open for subsequent 

software updates and extensions 

(especially for end users); 

THE PARTICIPANTS should be divided 

into interdisciplinary project groups, so 

that on the one hand a constant dynamic 

exchange of information can take place, 

while on the other hand, access to the 

management level of the OEM is possible 

at any time at short notice for the purpose 

of correcting objectives and targets; 

Consequently, the overriding rule is 

as follows: If the modularity of digitalisation 

projects (the "software") follows 

the modularity of machines and systems 

(the "hardware") and features the latest 

physical and data interfaces, as an OEM, 

you will then be providing an economically 

and technically optimal system for 

the current customer requirements. 

Such systems are also best equipped 

to cope with the constantly growing and 

partly still unknown future requirements! 

Interfaces play an important role 

in modular networked production 

systems: they are the "lifelines, nerve 

pathways and synapses" and create the 

necessary infrastructure for the module 

and machine transitions, the edge area, 

the factory and other superordinate levels. 

The HARTING Technology Group 

provides solutions for all interfaces 

that are essential in modern and future 

control, drive, HMI and communication 

technology for production systems, in 

order to implement and advance digitalisation 

in this area without functional 

restrictions. 



Keeping the Lights On and Preventing 

Failures with the FLIR Si124 

SPI Inspections provides their customers with top-notch utility system and 

infrastructure inspections, relying on their extensive experience in the field and 

advanced inspection technology. The team uses UAVs, FLIR thermal cameras, and 

other high-tech equipment to deliver qualified inspection services and independent 

verification of construction standards and monitoring of power systems. 

RECENTLY, the team at SPI Inspections 

test-ran the new FLIR Si124 acoustic 

imaging camera. Built with 124 microphones, 

the Si124 produces a precise 

acoustic image that visually displays 

ultrasonic information in real time on 

top of a digital camera picture. This allows 

the user to visually pinpoint the 

source of the sound. 

The founders of SPI Inspections 

have more than 100 years of combined 

experience working with utility systems, 

from building power lines to 

inspecting substations. “We’ve been 

around the block a few times,” says Elton 

Hunter, Field Manager at SPI. “Our 

background is basically power, from 

where it's made in the generating facility 

to where the meter is—either the 

The FLIR Si124 is a lightweight, one-handed 

solution that can identify issues up to 10 

times faster than with traditional methods. 

meter on your home or the meter on 

your business.” 

“We've really assisted our customers,” 

says Hunter. “Our goal is to make their 

systems work better, safer, and be more 

reliable.” The team at SPI Inspections 

found the FLIR Si124 to be an invaluable 

asset in detecting partial discharge, a 

sign of approaching or imminent failure 

in power infrastructure. 

The Tools of Inspection 

The journey of electricity from power 

plant to lightbulb in your home presents 

plenty of opportunities for failure if infrastructure 

isn’t properly maintained. 

SPI uses their extensive experience to 

recognize when an element needs maintenance, 

aided by advanced technology. 



The FLIR GF77 offers both radiometric temperature measurement and the ability to 

detect a wide range of gases by simply changing lenses. 

SPI Inspections that their tools are ready 

for the job. “It's very user friendly,” says 

Hunter about the Si124. “Within a halfdozen 

hours, we were very confident 

working with it.” 

“The camera has wonderful clarity 

for us in the field,” Hunter continues. 

He said his team appreciated the quality 

of the images, ease of download to a 

laptop or the cloud, and the functionality 

of the user interface. “We're guys that 

have been in construction for 40-plus 

years—we've got arthritis and big swollen 

fat hands hitting hammers and stuff. 

The user interfaces—the keys, the touch 

boards—are very user friendly. We found 

them very easy to work with.” 

IT IS IMPORTANT TO THE TEAM 

AT SPI INSPECTIONS THAT THEIR 

TOOLS ARE READY FOR THE JOB. 

“We bring a lot of technological tools to 

the trade,” says Hunter. Among the tools 

in their arsenal is the FLIR GF77 gas 

detection camera, which allows them to 

spot sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) leaks in 

electrical installations as well as detect 

hot spots. The GF77 is a multi-use camera 

that can detect a range of gases just 

by changing out the lens. When equipped 

with an HR Lens, the camera can visualize 

sulfur hexafluoride, while an LR 

Lens allows the camera to see methane, 

ethylene, ammonia, and other gas emissions. 

The camera is also calibrated for 

temperature, so it functions as a standard 

thermography camera use to reveal a 

wide range of utility issues. 

Having relied on FLIR gas detection 

cameras for previous inspections, the 

SPI team was excited to get their hands 

on the Si124 and see what it could do. 

Though acoustic imaging cameras are 

often used to locate pressurized leaks in 

compressed air systems, the Si124 is also 

a very effective tool for detecting partial 

discharge from high-voltage systems. 

Partial discharge—caused by a breakdown 

in electrical insulation—can be 

detected when the air around the breakdown 

becomes ionized, creating a phenomenon 

called “corona.” Corona can 

be quickly detected by acoustic imaging, 

identified by a “meatball” of sound in the 

image. “For us, that's invaluable,” says 

Hunter. 

Almost invisible electrical utility issues are quickly detected with the Si124. 

The team had previously been using 

ultraviolet technology to detect corona 

and were pleased to find that the Si124 

achieved about the same result for a fifth 

of the price. “The Si124 basically does 

the same job and it's very easy to use,” 

explains Brett Fleming, Corporate Manager 

at SPI Inspections. 

Intuitive and Accessible 

Features 

Because so much of their work is done 

in the field, it’s important to the team at 

The Si124 made it much easier to 

spot failures from the ground. During 

their test run of the camera, they found 

a failure on a power line 220 feet up in 

the air, a difficult issue to detect. “With 

our drones we could, but we would have 

known where to look,” says Hunter. “Because 

of our field experience we were 

able to pick it out and zoom in on it, 

then we knew that there was a bit of a 

problem up there.” 

“That's a 25-million-dollar failure 

on a line that's only five years old,” he 



The Si124 can detect issues up to 100 

m (328 ft) away, keeping inspectors 

on the ground and out of danger. 

remarks. With the Si124 they were able 

to catch the problem early, before the 

cost to fix it became nearly that high. 

Safely Accessing 

Dangerous Areas 

Electrical substations and other utility 

infrastructure present numerous 

hazards for workers and inspectors. 

When the team confronted a particularly 

dangerous area inside the substation 

where a capacitor bank had come 

down, they were required to stay outside 

the chain-link fence enclosing the 

area. They were pleased to find that 

the Si124 could look through the fence 

to assess the situation. 

“We were able to walk right up, and 

we could look right through the chainlink 

fence. Because there's 124 microphones 

on the front of the camera and 

then one little tiny camera,” Hunter 

explains, “that camera was able to 

look right through that two by two 

inch square and keep our people safe, 

which is a huge advantage for us being 

in the field.” 

Catching Problems Before 

They Become Catastrophes 

SPI’s goal during inspections is to catch 

issues before they’re allowed to escalate 

too far. Spotting partial discharge and corona 

early with tools like the Si124 helps 

them anticipate failures and keep the 

lights on for their clients. “It allows us to 

preemptively prognosticate what's happening 

in our power line,” says Hunter. 

“So instead of there being a catastrophic 

failure and then an outage and a repair, 

we can go in ahead of time and we can tell 

them, ‘hey, you're going to have a problem 

with this if you don't fix it’.” 

Unplanned outages can be prevented 

with regular inspection and maintenance. 

“If we do our jobs right, nobody 

ever knows we're out there. The customer 

doesn't know we're there; we go 

do our job, we make recommendations, 

and then through planned outages or 

regular maintenance they can repair 

something.” 

SPI Inspections operates in Canada 

and China—learn more about the services 

they offer here: www.spiinspections. 

com/, and learn more about the FLIR 

Si124: www.flir.com/products/si124/ 

ABOUT FLIR SYSTEMS, INC. 

FOUNDED IN 1978, FLIR SYSTEMS 

is a world-leading industrial technology 

company focused on intelligent 

sensing solutions for defense, 

industrial, and commercial applications. 

FLIR Systems’ vision is to be 

“The World’s Sixth Sense, creating 

technologies to help professionals 

make more informed decisions that 

save lives and livelihoods. For more 

information, please visit www.flir. 

com and follow @flir. 



IGS Technician Applying 

HVTS (High Velocity Thermal 

Spray) Alloy Cladding 

Cui Solution for Aging Plants 

Maintaining Production During 

Critical Maintenance 

BO ANDERSEN, 

bo.andersen@integratedglobal.com 

TSA (Thermal Sprayed 

Aluminium) provides lasting 

(>20 years) protection 

of carbon steel equipment. 

It acts as a barrier 

coating, passivating the 

surface and galvanically 

protecting it against atmospheric 

and immersion 

corrosion mechanisms, 

such as CUI (corrosion 

under insulation). 

IN THE PAST, TSA applications were 

performed during turnarounds, disrupting 

schedules and other activities due to 

noise, possible TSA fumes, and abrasive 

blasting. Plant operators were forced to 

make tradeoffs between turnaround duration 

and asset integrity as the amount 

and location of surfaces protected by 

TSA in turnarounds are limited. 

Aging Plants Require Work 

between Turnarounds 

There has been a higher demand for 

prolonged TSA application outside 

of the turnarounds in the past years. 

Equipment within many refineries, petrochemical 

plants, and other facilities 

is now a lot older. Pipes, vessels, and other 

process equipment face rapid deterioration 

of their original non-optimal corrosion 

protection. 

How to Increase the Speed of 

Maintenance and Maintain Production 

Capacity? 

Maintenance and Operations Managers 

are under pressure to increase the maintenance 

speed not to lose many production 

facilities or at least the production capacity. 

Thus, they look at doing the critical maintenance 

while the plant is online – in other 

words, without shutting it down. That way, 

they will be able to reach their maintenance 

goal and maintain uptime simultaneously. 



What about Safety? 

There are concerns about “hot-work” 

such as welding, abrasive blasting, and 

the open flame of TSA application in 

many locations around the world. Temperature 

and humidity also need to be 

controlled to reach the optimal environment 

for the TSA application. These 

concerns apply to both colder areas, 

such as Canada, Alaska, The North Sea, 

Northern Russia, and high temperature/ 

humidity areas like the Middle East, Singapore, 

and West Africa. 

Hot-work that may produce sparks 

or open flames can be dangerous due 

to the risk of explosion, fire, and the 

release of poisonous gasses. It can be 

hazardous for personnel, equipment, 

and the entire plant. 

Developing IGS TUFFss 

Online TSA Solution 

Large national and international petrochemical 

companies have been actively 

looking for a safer TSA solution, which 

can be applied while the plant is in operation. 

Royal Dutch Shell, a British-Dutch 

multinational oil and gas company, has 

initiated a project with TUFFss to develop 

a safer online TSA solution. 

TUFFss has since been acquired 

by Integrated Global Services (IGS), a 

global turnkey thermal spray cladding 

provider. IGS was chosen to join this 

project due to their lasting experience in 

the field of thermal spray. IGS is the sole 

provider of a proprietary HVTS (High 

Velocity Thermal Spray) alloy cladding 

technology, specifically designed 

for the protection of mission-critical 

equipment, including pressure vessels 

and boilers. Furthermore, IGS HVTS is 

applied in situ, whereas the majority of 

thermal spray applications take place in 

CUI on Piping is Common 

in Aging Facilities 

IGS TUFFss Online TSA Meets 

Highest Industry Standards 

workshops. To enable the HVTS application 

in the field, IGS have successfully 

optimized their materials, conveyancing 

technology, and application procedures. 

Could the same be done for TSA? 

IGS TUFFss Online TSA Meets 

Highest Industry Standards 

For TSA to be safely applied online, several 

issues would need to be resolved, 

including process-specific safety procedures, 

temperature, and humidity. 

Following two years of intensive R&D 

work, a safer online TSA solution was 

introduced. – 

– The solution included enhanced 

TSA application processes and procedures, 

sealed safety enclosures, humidity 

and temperature control, (negative) environmental 

pressure control, and a fully 

automated safety shutdown system for 

the TSA and abrasive blasting processes. 

Everything was custom-made and combined 

in ways unheard of, meeting the 

highest standards in the industry, Bo 

Andersen, who has been instrumental in 

the development of this new technology, 

said. 

Safety! Safety! Safety First! 

The IGS IGS TUFFSS ONLINE TSA 

solution is a safe way to handle online 

maintenance with blasting, TSA, or other 

coatings. This is made possible with a 

proprietary Automatic Shutdown System. 

This emergency shutdown system 

continuously monitors the entire work 

area and surroundings. The system will 

give digital, audible, and visual warnings 

in case of leak of gasses, pressure loss, or 

any other parameter deviation. 

This, in turn, enables almost instantaneously 

automatic termination of any 

work and equipment inside or outside 

the habitat, including, but not limited to, 

welding, grinding, power, grit/sandblasting, 

TSA, HVAC, dust collection, etc. All 

equipment is controlled through the 

use of electrical connections, solenoid 

valves, and pneumatic connections. 

Pilot Project at a Liquefied 

Natural Gas-Producing Plant 

Established in 1989, NLNG, an LNG facility 

in Nigeria, currently has 6 Trains. 

The plant has a total production capacity 

of 22 Million Tons Per Annum (mtpa) of 

LNG and 5mtpa of Natural Gas Liquids 

(NGLs), which equals 6% of the global 

market. 



Hot and Humid 

Located in a hot, humid, and very salty 

environment, piping at this facility is 

prone to corrosion. Various kinds of 

paint and insulation have initially been 

used for corrosion protection. After 20 

years in service, Corrosion Under Insulation 

(CUI) has turned into a significant 

problem with many pipes about to burst. 

Ignoring the problem or an insufficient 

solution could result in fire, explosion, 

environmental damage, loss of life, loss 

of profit, or production loss. 

CUI Problem: Evaluating 

Alternatives 

One option was to repaint the piping 

with the same or similar paints and coatings 

that have already failed once. Some 

new technology paints and coatings 

were also being considered. These paints 

would still need to be inspected and usually 

reapplied every 5-10 years. Thermal 

Spray Aluminium (TSA) was an optimum 

solution due to its long inspection 

cycle, >20 years, and proven reliability. 

IGS TUFFss Online TSA Pilot 

Application 

TSA coatings applied in traditional ways 

without environmental controls would 

not be practical in this case. The scale of 

the work in total exceeded 360,000m2. 

Applied during turnarounds, it would 

have taken over 30 years to protect all corroded 

piping. The plant would not have 

lasted 30 years in its present condition! 

The plant needed a solution that could be 

applied while the plant is live. The application 

would need to be climate-controlled 

during surface preparation and TSA application, 

with all grit and dust contained. 

The IGS TUFFSS ONLINE TSA pilot 

project was first completed on train 1. 

The scope included a 50-meter (160 foot) 

column and a two-level platform with two 

heat exchangers/reboilers. IGS TUFFSS 

ONLINE TSA was applied to a total area 

of 700m2 on cold and hot surfaces. 

This onsite project began on October 1st 

2016, and concluded in January 2018. 

The project was carried out in adverse 

weather conditions, including heavy 

rain, thunder, sandstorms, high temperature, 

and high humidity. 

One Train Done, Six to Go 

This project succeeded in meeting and 

exceeding objectives by rigidly following 

all safety guidelines. The project utilized 

specially designed Habitats to enable 

IGS IGS TUFFSS ONLINE TSA Project at a Liquefied Natural Gas-Producing Plant 

CUI Problem Area on Piping 

weather protection, climate, humidity, and 

pressure control. It was now confirmed 

without a doubt that it is possible to do the 

encapsulated TSA maintenance in a live 

environment, which will be of great importance 

to NLNG in the future as the work 

continues on the remaining six trains. 

IGS TUFFSS ONLINE TSA – 

In Summary 

As equipment within refineries, petrochemical 

plants, and other facilities 

continues to age, the demand for maintenance 

solutions that can be applied all 

year round is growing. Plant operators 

are looking to companies like IGS to 

utilize their global footprint and experience 

to deliver innovative solutions 

safely and efficiently. Preventing shutdowns 

and providing the work outside of 

turnarounds eases the pressure off the 

maintenance and operations teams, who 

can continue production while crucial 

maintenance work is being simultaneously 

carried out. Further IGS TUFFSS 

ONLINE TSA projects are now being 

commissioned within refineries and 

petrochemical sites, paving the way for 

more uptime in aging facilities. 

GOOD TO KNOW 

INTEGRATED GLOBAL SERVICES, Inc. 

(IGS) is an international provider of 

surface protection solutions headquartered 

in Virginia, USA. IGS operates 

operational hubs, subsidiaries, and 

sales offices around the world to service 

global asset owners and operators. 

The company has 40 years of experience 

helping customers solve metal 

wastage and reliability problems in 

mission critical equipment and is an 

industry leader in the development 

and application of solutions to corrosion 

and erosion problems in challenging 

operating environments. 


Registration: 

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JUN 08 – 10, 2021 

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EACH DAY: 2H CONFERENCE – 1H Q&A 

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Listen to infl uencers on technology, security and solutions: 

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©royyimzy – stock.adobe.com

TRAINING & EDUCATION 

Creativity Was 

– and Still Is – 

Needed in Teaching and R&D Projects 

during the Pandemic Time 

The Corona virus outbreak shut 

down all of Häme University 

of applied sciences (HAMK) 

campuses, just as it did in other 

Universities. Teaching was 

transferred to the internet. But 

how were research activities 

continued with the tight 

movement restriction in place? 

LEA MUSTONEN, Senior Lecturer (Communications), School of Technology, Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK), 

SUSAN HEIKKILÄ, Senior Lecturer, Electrical and Automation Engineering study programme, Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) 

THE SHIFT TO REMOTE TEACHING happened 

in a few hours. On Friday 13.3.2020 

regular classroom teaching was being 

implemented as usual, but with the 

recent corona outbreak on everyone’s’ 

minds. But at the same day all the contact 

lessons were cancelled to the end of the 

semester. Classrooms became deserted. 

The jump to pure virtual-based teaching 

was not painless, but the staff had strong 

experience of teaching diverse students 

who studied and worked at that time. 

Some students used to traditional 

classroom teaching and university facilities 

had problems with software and 

internet connections. Luckily many of 

the software developers had a “We are all 

in the same boat” -mentality. At the start, 

teachers often had to think what software 

would likely work for teaching virtually, 

but a lot of the software used got quick updates 

within the first few weeks. In addition 

to students, the teaching staff moved 

to a virtual environment with no major 

problems. So, there were some problems 

with teaching, but the goal was in sight. 

Digital twin as a solution 

Staff of universities does not only include 

teaching staff. The radical change also 

meant rethinking the means of success 

for research activities. To further 

research during these restrictions, the 

digital twin was taken in use in our project, 

Low Carbon Energy Efficiency with 

Micro-CHP-technology (later called as 

VEneCT). 

The term “digital twin” tells it’s meaning 

quite well: a digital copy is made of a 

physical thing. The copy is made to simulate 

the parameters and components 

essential for its functionality as close as 

possible in the development environment. 

Digital twin is a simulation that 

makes it possible to test how a change 

to an existing one or a new functionality 

would affect the original. 

The goal of the VEneCT-project is low 

carbon usage, as it is a goal in all of the research 

projects conducted by HAMK that 

involve energy efficiency. The basis of the 

research is that its results benefit companies 

and teaching in the future. 

The purpose of the project is to resolve 

how electricity can be produced on a small 

scale with waste energy including the possibility 

of utilizing the waste energy produced 

by burning process. The research 

is conducted using a physical construct 

that utilizes a “hybrid module” of generating 

and storing energy. Different types of 

energy-generating possibilities are tested. 

The construct has been installed with a 

control system that determines what energy 

source is the most cost efficient. The 

possible energy sources are solar heating, 

solar panels and heating bio-boiler. Different 

storage methods of heat energy are 

also being explored. Testing is being done 

on different phase change materials in addition 

to water to enable larger amounts 

of heat energy storage. In addition to the 

hybrid module creating data, the construct 

itself could be an energy source. 

Corona virus sped up the 

development process 

When teaching moved to a virtual environment 

with a fast pace, the research 


TRAINING & EDUCATION 

Picture 1. The digital twin’s interface 

It is also possible to delve deeper into the data, for example, if some sudden 

change or outcome draws attention. Picture 2 shows an example of a report. 

Picture 2. Boiler water temperature 

The advantage is that different data can be combined and later we can 

return to a certain time period to inspect it. It is also beneficial to be able to 

monitor individual status changes in real time, allowing for a quick response 

to the situation. “The novelty is that the reporting view and process control 

are combined”, sums up the project engineer Ari Lindgren. 

personnel also started working from 

home as much as possible. The continuation 

of the VEneCT-research project 

with a great start became a challenge. 

The hybrid module is controlled with 

touch-screen control panel, which is 

situated inside the building. Remote 

access to collected data has been a goal 

from the very start, but remote control 

of the system was not part of the written 

down objectives of the project. The idea 

had been brought up at the start of the 

year before the pandemic, but there had 

not been any active development on it. 

Closing of the campus changed the situation 

totally. 

The size of the hybrid module building 

is 18 square meters. Tight pandemic 

security measures allow for only one 

person to enter the building. Because 

of the complicity of its interior design, 

even careful cleaning practices cannot 

guarantee the safety off the staff. Staff 

access was limited so that there had to 

be a three-day gap between access of different 

staff members. So, the research 

activities could not be continued in a 

realistic way. 

Special attention to data 

security 

When designing the remote control, 

special attention had to be paid to data 

security, emphasizes research assistant 

Duong Truong. Control cannot be performed 

from home computers or home 

network connections; it can only take 

place in a secure network of HAMK. 

Thus, the researchers had to physically 

come to campus, but since there was no 

contact teaching, there was plenty of 

room on campus to operate without any 

kind of close contact. 

A digital twin was built for the control 

system of the hybrid module. It is now 

possible to both monitor and control activities 

remotely. A key part of the digital 

twin’s operations is reporting. The digital 

twin’s interface (picture 1) provides realtime 

information on process status and, 

for example, temperature changes, water 

flows, and electricity production. 

Digital twin came to stay 

The digital twin changed the way to operate 

and came to stay. It will be used in the 

future, when physical presence requiring 

burn tests are not being performed. Everything 

else can be done virtually. 

At the moment, virtual learning and 

work will continue. Changing circumstances 

forced – and will force - us to 

search new solutions in teaching and research; 

the digital twin is a good example 

of this. Ending research and development 

cannot be afforded. 

PROJECT INFORMATION: 

VEneCT i.e. Low Carbon Energy Efficiency 

using Micro-CHP-technology. 

An EU project funded by the Pirkanmaa 

Association integrates electricity 

generation using waste heat from the 

combustion process. (CHP, combined 

heat and power) 



Monetizing Data 

in Maintenance: 

Data-driven Spare Parts 

Management – Part 2 

TOMÁŠ HLADÍK, 

Principal Consultant, 

Logio S.R.O. 

Today, digitization, Industry 4.0 and Maintenance 

4.0 bring about vast volumes of data. Technologies 

such as IoT or IIoT allow large sets of devices to 

connect to data networks and send complex data 

continuously. 

Organizations today maintain huge amounts of data, structured 

or unstructured. However, from research of renowned 

organizations like Gartner, we know that industrial firms today 

are not able to use 70—90 percent of data that are collected 

and stored. This paradox is described in the paper, and various 

generic models of big data monetization are proposed. Some of 

these models are shown in examples from spare parts management. 

Spare parts inventory can lock in significant amounts of 

working capital. This article summarizes recommendations 

for effective spare parts inventory management and spare 

parts optimization using various sets of data and statistical 

analytical methods. 

The management of spare parts and other materials needed 

for realization of maintenance processes is one of the key functions 

in physical asset management. Especially in power generation, 

oil and gas and heavy chemical industries, spare parts 

inventories can easily add up to tens of thousands of various 

items, at a value of hundreds of millions of euros. 

It is obvious that efficient spare parts inventory management 

can have significant impact on the financial performance 

of the company. Better spare parts management can lead to 

improvement of financial performance of the company. 

In previous research we discussed several recommendations 

for spare parts inventory management. Using these 

recommendations, companies can achieve better financial 

performance in different parts of the spare parts lifecycle. 

In some of these recommended practices, various data can 

be employed and analysed – especially in areas like portfolio 

segmentation, criticality assessment, forecasting, improving 

spare parts naming and identification, or cleaning and rectifying 

master data. 

Eight Rules of Good Spare Parts Management 

In our previous research, we refined the following eight rules – 

best practices – for good spare parts management: 

• Focus on preventative maintenance – for preventative 

maintenance no inventories of spare parts need to be 

held. 

• Solve problems in spare parts processes. 

• Segment your spare parts portfolio. 

• Analyse spare part’s criticality. 

• Use suitable forecasting methods and verify their accuracy 

and reliability. 

• Use special methods for intermittent demand items. 

• Consider the whole lifecycle of your assets while mak- 



ing decisions related to spare parts. 

• Implement a good information system for spare parts 

management so all above stated rules are supported 

and/or automated. 

In this issue of Maintworld we will describe in more detail the 

importance of analysing spare parts critically and the need to 

use suitable forecasting methods and verify their accuracy and 

reliability. 

Analyse Spare Part’s Criticality 

In large organizations operating large production systems, the 

size of spares portfolio amounts to tens or hundreds of thousands 

of items. It is therefore essential to be able to distinguish 

the important ones from the others. Criticality of spare parts is 

after all the ultimate measure of spare parts’ importance. 

The level of a spare part’s criticality is inevitably related to 

the criticality of the production equipment it is used for (so 

having an RCM analysis done will certainly help in assessing 

the criticality of spares). However, we need to keep in mind 

that criticality of spare parts is not equal to criticality of the 

device the spares are used for. 

When analysing criticality, we need to collect and look at 

various areas of data linked with the item: cost of inventory 

holding, failure probability, impacts of spare part unavailability, 

lead-time and other parameters – as shown in Fig. 4. 

Based on the level of item’s criticality, appropriate service level 

targets should be set. 

In practice, costs of inventory holding, and costs of spare 

parts unavailability should be carefully balanced. Costs can be 

compared using the following equation: 

Cinv=Cun*LT*f (1) 

Figure 4: Spare parts criticality analysis areas 

Where Cinv are costs of inventory holding per one year and 

Cun are costs of unavailability of spare part in case of need 

calculated per one day. LT is lead time calculated in days and 

f is frequency or probability of failure (need for spare part) as 

occurrences per year. 

If all data for the equation is available, criticality can be 

calculated directly – and easily. But in practice typically some 

the variables in the equation are not known at all or are uncertain, 

blurred and inaccurate. This is where advanced analysis 

Figure 5: Equation of criticality calculation – example 



of available data comes to question. From our experience, in 

industrial organizations a number of interesting sets of data can 

be utilized to evaluate (or support evaluation) of spare parts’ 

importance (criticalness or criticality). 

In the following diagram (Figure 6), a 2-level evaluation of 

criticality (or identification of critical items – materials or spare 

parts) is described. This 2-level approach allows for the “clever”, 

efficient process of evaluation of large numbers of items. Using 

various data sources like spare parts master data, history of 

spare parts transactions, RCM data, data from previous assessments 

of critical items, bills of materials etc., a preliminary separation 

of clearly non-critical items vs. suspicious (potentially 

critical) items can be done by means of data analysis without 

human interaction. After this preliminary evaluation, we can 

spot the relatively small group of potentially critical items and 

focus further evaluation on them. In this way the preliminary 

evaluation can save a lot of work and time otherwise required 

from maintenance technicians to assess each item individually. 

In the second step, potentially critical items are scrutinized 

thoroughly to find out their level (score) of criticalness. This can 

be done either in a quantitative way (if required data is available) 

or qualitative way (data must be collected by means of questionnaires 

filled-in by maintenance technicians or engineers). 

If it is less than 0 we should not – this spare part is not critical. 

Weights should be tested on selected parts with known (or 

agreed) criticality. A pilot mix of spare parts should include 

some parts which are critical for sure, some which are not, and 

some which are in between. 

It is essential to include maintenance engineers in both 

selecting questions for the questionnaire and in selecting 

weights for answers. This helps to create a better understanding 

of the questions and the whole purpose of the criticality 

assessment. A maintenance engineer should be able to fill the 

questionnaire in an average time of 2-10 minutes, so that the 

criticality assessment will not consume much of working time. 

Although assessment can be done on paper or in Excel, today 

it makes more sense to use available services like Google 

Forms or SurveyMonkey or others, that can be used to collect 

needed data and minimize the work with collecting, processing 

and analysing the data. 

Spare Parts Management Starts with Good 

Forecasting 

The next step in the specification of optimum spare parts 

inventory management regime is the prediction of future 

demand (consumption) for the items in stock. The forecast is 

always based on transactional data from information systems 

GOOD FORECASTING IS ALWAYS A BALANCED 

COMBINATION OF QUANTITATIVE METHODS 

AND HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. MATHEMATICS 

AND AI CAN WORK FOR US AUTOMATICALLY, 

BUT STILL WE NEED TO ENSURE QUICK AND 

EFFICIENT INPUT FROM PEOPLE. 

Figure 6: 2-level evaluation of spare parts criticality. 

If data for quantitative calculation is not available, we need to 

rely on information from maintenance engineers or technicians. To 

objectivize their subjective view on spare parts (maintenance engineers 

are often strongly biased towards keeping excessive inventory, 

“just to be safe”), we have proposed a structured questionnaire. 

Questions about spare parts realisability, probability of failure, 

and impact of unavailability, lead time, etc. should be designed 

to fit specific conditions of the organization (industry, technology/production 

equipment used etc.). The equation (1) should 

be taken into logarithm, so we can change variables for indices 

which can be added and subtracted instead of multiplicated. Answers 

should be given weights, and the questionnaire should be 

balanced so that we can have sums for each area (index) as shown 

in the following equation: 

IP-Iun-ILT-If=0 (2) 

This allows for summing weights for answers in each area 

into a single index. If the left side of the equation is greater 

than 0, we should keep at least one item of spare part in stock. 

– history of spare parts consumptions, which must be representative 

(meaning sufficiently long). In the case of spare parts, 

we usually work with a history of three to ten years (depending 

on industry). Three years of recorded history seems to be the 

minimum for intermittent items. A general rule here applies: 

the longer the history, the better and more reliable the forecast. 

When analysing historical consumption, we need to carefully 

distinguish between material consumed for planned 

maintenance (planned shutdowns, turnarounds, preventive 

maintenance) and spare parts issued for unplanned (corrective) 

maintenance – repairs. In forecasting, we must adjust the 

history for planned maintenance. 

In the forecasting process, items should be treated individually, 

according to the character of their consumption. Items 

with common demand patterns (high runners – fast moving 

items like fasteners, etc.) can be forecast using a number of 

standard statistical methods normally used in inventory management 

(moving average, exponential smoothing, Holt’s exponential 

smoothing, trends, seasonal indexes, Winter’s method, 

etc.). Items with intermittent demand require a special 

suitable method to be applied. The use of standard methods of 

prediction and inventory management in case of intermittent 

items results often in a substantial overestimate of future consumption 

and therefore excessive inventory level. 


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solutions enable organizations to keep more accurate records of where their workforce are, 

and at what times, and allow them to more intelligently schedule worker tasks. Learn more 

about this and other groundbreaking solutions by checking out ICONICS 10.97 webcast series. 

iconics.com/1097-webcasts

Maintworld Magazine 1/2021

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