Optimizing asset usage through integrated maintenance software systems

Although utilities have made substantial investments and realized significant gains from automation over the past decades, opportunities still exist to further improve the overall effectiveness of operations. In many cases exploiting these opportunities does not require replacement of IT systems already owned, but instead focuses on identifying, interpreting and delivering information already available to individuals or systems that can benefit from the information - all with the same goal - maximizing return on assets. This paper advocates an IT architecture for integrating computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) with existing SCADA solutions based on ABB's industrial IT platform. Although targeted at maintenance, the concept and fundamentals of the presented integration apply to all connectivity issues between data acquisition, control and business systems. We will describe a prototype solution, which utilizes SAP's R/3 product line.