Reporting from Honeywell Users Group conference in Phoenix, I received the following press release from the Honeywell Users Group Symposium, an information service covering the conference: "FYI, Honeywell today released improved versions of its two key asset management offerings and announced an initiative to help plant operators to more effectively implement reliability-centered and predictive maintenance programs. Honeywell has refreshed its Asset Manager and Field Advisor technologies – two key solutions designed to help proactively manage the health and performance of assets – and also announced it is collaborating with global consulting, training and services firm GPAllied (www.gpallied.com), in an initiative that will help plants more effectively implement reliability-centered and predictive maintenance programs."
This is, to me, an exciting announcement. Honeywell is leveraging its data handling and equipment experience to support the aging infrastructure that, let’s face it, dominates industries worldwide. For a guy like me who has spent years helping people manage aging infrastructure in a wide variety of cultures, this is a refreshing business insight and a genuine service to mankind. The Honeywell asset management resources now share data with the most popular existing computer maintenance management systems (CMMS) and help to drive reliability and maintenance programs that will enhance safety, quality of work life, productivity, and profitability wherever they are applied. To ensure that the results are understood and embraced by the people who must do the work, GPAllied has joined the team as implementation consultants.
This afternoon I had the pleasure of talking with Ron L. Stallworth, Sr., Honeywell’s global business manager for asset management. He puts it simply, "Reliability equals safety. By developing resources that can support aging equipment with modern, scalable solutions for asset management, we make it easier to stay in the game."
Many nations have utilities and mining industries that provide services and jobs by running old equipment. These countries all have their own unique stories and histories. Some are recovering from wars or famine. Some have governments that just can’t seem to get out of their own ways. Whatever the details, almost all share one situation. They can’t wait for new infrastructure to provide safe, reliable workplaces. They need to be able to apply modern asset management practices to existing plants today.
The data management tools and implementation resources to do this are available now, at a fraction of the cost of new equipment. Honeywell’s offerings provide a tidy package of controls and management tools to support the effort. By making it easier to stay in the game, improved management techniques will provide a foundation for further improvements in the future and an experienced workforce to populate the new infrastructure when it comes.