Making the transition from volumes of paper to an electronic, cloud-based data solution is no small undertaking when dealing with hundreds of thousands of quality measurements each year. To solve this problem, SKF is pioneering an iPad system, SKF Data Collect, to help customers record and manage their data.
“Although SKF’s legacy is bearing technology, the company is now evolving its product and service offerings to include cloud-based tools that make life easier for our customers,” says Jerry Schick, key account manager at SKF Strategic Industries. “The business model is software as a service, so customers don’t have to reinstall software or worry about keeping their system up to date. We take care of updates – it’s all part of the service.”
One SKF customer using Data Collect is US-based EthosEnergy, which specialises in gas turbine refurbishment for the oil, gas and power generating industries. “Over a year we deal with 240 000 precise dimensional measurements recorded traditionally on paper,” says Mike Fisher, president of EthosEnergy Light Turbines. “Imagine all those weighty paper documents – all the information is out of date the minute it’s recorded. We need it to be digital and alive so that we can analyse it in real-time.” Fisher says he has seen similar products, but none provided the versatility of Data Collect – a highly customisable, configurable product that can display data, drawings and tables as well as store information and photos.
EthosEnergy takes in a range of sub 12 MW gas turbines and driven equipment and overhauls them to extremely high quality standards. The task can be daunting, with more than 4000 components per turbine. Technicians work methodically in the spotless facility, first assessing the condition of each part, then recording precise dimensions and assessing exacting repair procedures to return the component to ‘as new’ condition.
Finally there is post-repair, re-recording all the data and assembling the complex machine for full-load testing. The entire process takes up to 16 weeks, with the parts being catalogued along the way with technical details and photos. All these measurements are stored for years and may need to be referenced for various reasons. Checking on the status of any given engine or part requires walking to the station, looking up the work order and talking with the technician. On a typical day there can be 74 project work orders open, each requiring about 500 pages of documents. EthosEnergy needs to record this data so it can be used for analysis later on.
Using Data Collect, EthosEnergy has converted to an iPad app to digitise and automatically access multiple projects at any given time. This means 35 000 pages are no longer in storage boxes. The data-based process is an integrated system, so teams in different sections can work with the information simultaneously; and there is a visual display at each stage of the disassembly and remanufacturing process. The whole team can be alerted as to where a work order is during the entire process. Photos are electronically attached to the inspection data and the iPad supports a final signature from each technician as the work is completed. Data Collect resynchronises and shares that information securely every 5 to 10 minutes through the cloud. The robust iPads have heavy-duty cases for the shop. They are delivered with an industrial waterproof case and can be dropped on the floor or dipped in water.
“It’s a super-slick product,” says Fisher. “I can walk out to the shop floor, pick up an iPad, drill down to any component and examine the data for that component from any position in the shop. It’s also very user-friendly – anyone with an iPad or iPhone can quickly adapt to this system. People think we’re all about wrenches and hammers, but actually we use a very sophisticated component design system.”
Fisher and Schick both expect the system to take off. “It’s applicable to many different applications requiring complex data,” Fisher says. “We have a partner overseas that wishes to conduct overhauls. I can manage almost the entire quality management side from here if they adopt SKF Data Collect. In the utility industry it would be a great tool for outage management and tracking and it can provide tremendous advantages for field crews. I see a lot of opportunity.”
For more information contact Samantha Joubert, SKF South Africa, +27 (0)11 821 3602, [email protected], www.skf.com
| Tel: | +27 11 821 3500 |
| Fax: | +27 11 821 3505 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.skf.co.za |
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