Asset Performance 4.0 Award 2023
On Wednesday 25 October 2023, 8 candidates presented their cases, competing for the Asset Performance 4.0 Award.
Discover the finalists below by clicking on the links:
- ArcelorMittal - VR 3D Crane Simulator for qualitative crane operator training
- Beaulieu International Group - Humanizing the SAP CMMS with an Innovative Approach to Maintenance Management
- De Watergroep - Proactive detection of water leakages thanks to sensors
- Dubai Municipality - Clean City Index
- Saudi Aramco - Critical Pumps Live Performance SEEQ Dashboard
- US Steel Kosice - Maintenance transformation - increase labour productivity and reduce maintenance costs
- Vinçotte - L.i.F.T plan - VIA project track
- Water-Link - Digital Water Meter - Meter Data Management Platform
Candidates 2023
ArcelorMittal: VR 3D Crane Simulator for qualitative crane operator training
Lies Casier, Support manager Progress Academy
ArcelorMittal had difficulties recruiting potential crane operators, which proved to be a bottleneck profession. Measuring the agility or skills of the crane operators objectively is a difficult task. Training and preparing for emergency scenarios is next to impossible.
That’s why ArcelorMittal chose to make a ‘Crane Simulator’, using VR glasses and joysticks. One hall for the Steel Shop (ladles) and one hall for the Cold Rolling Mill (coils) are modelled in a 3D environment. This results in qualitative training of crane operators to improve their skill set following several scenarios in the simulator. Without impacting the running production, the new crane operator can improve their skill level completely autonomously following several scenarios in a safe environment in the simulator. Added bonus: On job fairs they can attract potential candidates with this high-tech material.
Beaulieu International Group: Humanizing the SAP CMMS with an Innovative Approach to Maintenance Management
Tom Serroels, ERP Applications Manager
For several years, Beaulieu International Group has been utilizing the SAP ERP application to manage its business processes. In alignment with their strategic digitalization roadmap, Beaulieu International Group sought to extend the use of SAP to their maintenance activities. The primary challenge they faced was to provide a highly accessible Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) solution that would offer technicians a user-friendly maintenance planning and mobile tool while harnessing the full capabilities of the SAP ERP application. The solution needs to seamlessly integrate with all other business domains such as procurement, spare parts management, financial controlling, human resources,….
Beaulieu International Group's ambition was to establish a unified CMMS platform across their diverse range of production plants, both large and small. Consequently, they conducted a thorough market search to identify a solution that combined user-friendliness, richness of functionality, and seamless integration with SAP.
After careful consideration, the Belgian pride in textile and flooring solutions selected the Ready4 Asset Management solution offered by SOA People, confident that it could effectively address their current and future maintenance challenges on a significant scale. To validate and test the effectiveness of this solution, Beaulieu International Group opted to implement it in one of their production plants in Norway. This plant, previously using a Best of Breed maintenance solution, successfully transitioned to the comprehensive SAP CMMS solution (SAP PM & R4AM solution by SOA People) within a remarkably brief period of time. The R4AM-platform provided an out-of-the-box solution for their team of planners and technicians.
De Watergroep: Proactive detection of water leakages thanks to sensors
Cindy Vermeire, the Director of Distribution and Supply, Sponsor of Leakie programme
Filip Vancoillie, Head of Asset Management, Leakie programme manager
Dry summers and a changing climate in large parts of Europe are putting water resources under pressure and posing challenges to De Watergroep, as the largest drinking water company in Flanders. Because between production centres and customers, a substantial amount of water is lost. They decided to do a significant investment of 17.8 million euro to install 400 new flow and pressure sensors and replace 300 existing data loggers.
The project provides crucial data to manage 35,000 km of pipes. Measuring more means knowing more. And especially more targeted measurements: thanks to the new sensors search areas are smaller, making it possible to locate and repair leaks - including invisible ones - more efficiently. This allows De Watergroep to avoid losing large quantities of water and limit consequential damage, which is also good for customers. We proactively detect leaks and prevent sinkholes. Thanks to the replacement of the data loggers, we can also count on the data flowing through to our systems much more frequently.
The new sensors are connected to a platform on which all sensor data is collected. That data then enters a state-of-the-art data warehouse that is prepared for the future. Running on it is a platform with self-learning algorithms that process data faster and determine the location of leaks faster and more precisely. This data-driven way of working makes detection work for our leak detection teams much more efficient.
Dubai Municipality : Clean City Index
Ata Aboshi, Senior Treatment Systems Projects Engineer in Waste Operations Department
The City of Dubai had difficulties identifying how much waste is generated from a particular building or source, and differentiate the waste types. That is why they invested in an Integrated Waste Management System. In particular, they focused on the mediating effects of operation efficiency and corporate innovation in the ability of digital transformation to enhance corporate sustainability.
With the help of a GIS system and the (building)numbers, they can now locate the waste bins and type of waste. While collecting the waste, the driver will indicate the collection points through the mobile application. The moment of the vehicle is monitored by a control room unit, that allocates the disposal location. When the waste is at that destination, RFID based smart gates will identify the vehicles and register the entry weights. After the disposal, the system will collect the empty weight of the vehicle, and deduct the correct fee as per the executive council orders of Dubai.
Saudi Aramco : Critical Pumps Live Performance SEEQ Dashboard
Nezar Ba-Aqeel, Reliability Engineer
Samil Alshaibani, Reliability Unit Supervisor
Saudi Aramco Khursaniyah Gas Plant (KGP) has developed a SEEQ dashboard covering (KGP) critical pumps. The dashboard was developed with an objective to have a live view of KGP critical pumps performance in relation to the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) performance curve. The dashboard shows in a live view the current operating point against the plotted manufacturer pump performance curve with both upper and lower operating limits, which are visually plotted to aid monitoring of the pump performance.
Events of low/high performance operations are automatically captured in the trend view of the dashboard to ease identification of these events for RU engineers to analyze them and share required corrective actions with the OME team proactively. To further complement the live performance view, the dashboard also shows pump performance history for the past 30 days, with duration indication to these low/high performance events. As a result, the pumps have a higher reliability and more technical availability, the team notes energy savings and a higher output.
US Steel Kosice : Maintenance transformation - increase labour productivity and reduce maintenance costs
Branislav Kysel’, PhD., Process Manager Maintenance Reliability
Juraj Valent, Process Maintenance Manager
The main objective was to strengthen their competitive position in Europe. This went hand in hand with the objective of increasing productivity and work efficiency in three areas, namely production, support activities in administration and maintenance. To increase labour productivity and reduce costs, maintenance transformation was a priority for USSKE. The result was that three major changes were implemented: a transformation in the administration process (such as purchasing), operational changes (in the steel production) and – last but not least – maintenance transformation, with three waves in three years.
Transformation of maintenance was divided into 3 phases or waves: in the beginning, the focus was on improving planning and scheduling in order to have good plans for a more efficient and safer approach to work. This was related to an increase in labour productivity. Then the focus shifted to improving the reliability of the equipment (RCM or reliability centred maintenance), which was also intended to reduce costs and minimise downtime. USSKE is trying to implement more preventive maintenance instead of corrective (the goal is a ratio of 70% compared to 30%, whereas it was 50/50). The last wave was the introduction of autonomous maintenance and the integration of operators into the facilities’ maintenance process. All was supported by a maintenance information system.
Vinçotte : L.i.F.T plan - VIA project track
Martijn Cuyx, Innovation Manager
Vinçotte faced several challenges: efficiency of processes, increasing value delivered to customers, slow adoption of modern technologies & technical resource scarcity. One of the main challenges was the need to adapt to the changing paradigm brought about by technological progress and digitalization. Vinçotte recognized the potential for disruption and wanted to ensure that they could leverage digitalization to simplify processes for staff members while providing greater value to customers and their equipment.
The ultimate aim was to become a data organisation and to use digital tools to improve efficiency, accessibility of information, and occupational safety. The digital transformation involved multiple coordinated projects, one of which was managed by the innovation teams focusing on the development of robotics and automation solutions. Vinçotte found that for critical equipment or assets, preparing and managing inspections in a cloud-based digital twin platform was highly beneficial.
Water-Link : Digital Water Meter - Meter Data Management Platform
Hans Smeuninx, Asset Manager at Water-link
Nico Kanora, IT-Manager at Water-link
Before this transformation, Water-Link lacked digital meters in their grid, resulting in the need for manual customer consultation when generating invoices. However, the installation of digital water meters and their integration with a data platform has revolutionized the invoicing process, enabling automatic invoicing and data alerts. This advancement has significantly enhanced operational efficiency.
Furthermore, the integration of Water-Link's data lake with other IoT company measurements offers an additional advantage. This allows for the creation and consolidation of dashboards, providing a comprehensive overview of water production and distribution.