Tangible asset management
How to drive down costs when you install new equipment at your plant

Plant asset management is a hot topic in the process automation industry, but is it just a passing fad or is there more to it than that? This article tries to assess the potential benefits of plant asset management systems, and it takes a look at some initial hands-on strategies and implementation.

Asset management is a technique which is widely used throughout industry and the business world. The objective is to obtain maximum performance from business assets in order to achieve corporate goals. This strategy helps management maximize value add using the available capital assets or achieve a specific value add target with minimal capital investment. When plant asset management is used for process systems, the goal is to maintain and/or enhance the value of a production system by collecting information on the condition of the system and analyzing the information. The results can be used to enhance the value of the assets or increase system availability.

To enhance the value of a production system
For this approach to work, the assets in a process system which provide information about the condition of the system need to be defined. A distinction is drawn between dynamic and static assets. Dynamic assets are system components which provide system information to the asset management system. This category mainly includes control system components, field devices, motors and complete package units. State-of-the-art fieldbus systems normally provide the link to the process control systems. A whole range of diagnostic and status information can be sent in digital format without interfering with the process data. However, there are other components in a process system, which are currently only documented in the asset management system. These static assets are stored in a database as data sheets, functional descriptions, installation instructions and engineering tools. Pipework, tanks and physical layer components are typical examples of static assets. Turck, a manufacturer of physical layer products, has developed solutions which make it possible to include its products in an asset management system. Turck views all components which link field devices to control systems as physical layer products including standard point-to-point wiring (interface technology), remote I/O and state-of-the-art fieldbus technology. Information flows between the control systems and the field devices via the physical layer components regardless of the solution which is being used. System availability is directly dependent on the availability of the physical layer.
Asset management and FDT/DTM technology
Turck has based its solution on FDT/DTM technology, and there are several reasons for this:
-The engineering advantages are at the top of the list. DTM’s present asset information on standard user interfaces. Users do not have to learn how to manipulate diagnostic information. Instead, they can concentrate on the content of the information which is available to them.
-DTMs from different suppliers do not interfere with each other, and there is no need to run interoperability tests on various diagnostic tools. Turck has been favorably impressed with the FDT/DTM approach for a long time. The company, which supplies sensors, field bus and interface products, is now one of the technology leaders. One of the highlights of the Turck DTM portfolio is the modular DTM for the excom zone 1 remote I/O station. The size and functionality of this driver is unparalleled. The excom remote I/O features DTM-based self-management, and it also sends information from Hart devices to the appropriate DTMs, providing asset data as well as process data.
The evolution of asset management systems
Asset management systems are normally an integral part of a state-of-the-art control system, and they are developed by control system manufacturers specifically for their systems. Nearly all asset management systems which are available on the market today support FDT/DTM technology. Turck devices can be managed as assets with virtually no dependency on the control system. As an added benefit, small FDT frames (Pactware) are available which only manage DTM’s, and some of them are provided at no charge. Pactware was designed specifically for device parameterization and configuration, and these tools cannot be used to create a complete asset management solution. They enable users to familiarize themselves with FDT/DTM technology without having to incur investment costs. FDT/DTM is very versatile and can be used as a parameterization tool or a complex asset management system. It also offers excellent scalability, from mini (test) installations to large system environments. DTMs are virtually a standard feature of the Turck physical layer product portfolio, and this provides an excellent basis for treating the physical layer as a managed asset. The goal is to continue to make the physical layer more transparent to the user. Turck makes its physical layer expertise available to customers in the form of DTMs.