Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Asset Management
10
CHAPTER OUTLINE
10.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................237
10.2 Expected benefits...........................................................................................238
10.3 e-Maintenance in the M2M Era.......................................................................239
10.4 Hazardous goods management in the M2M Era ................................................242
10.5 Conclusions...................................................................................................244
10.1 Introduction
The emergence of the IoT with its billions of envisioned devices poses
a clear challenge to the management of these. Existing asset management
practices consider the operations applicable to various physical assets, and in
their majority refer to monitoring of their operations and to some degree to
the adjustment (control) of their behavior. However, such operations have
been up to now strongly coupled with what the devices and underlying
systems are capable of, bound with (mostly) proprietary protocols in order to
cover the largest possible spectrum of functionalities and guarantee results,
and are mostly static.
All of these current practices, however, are undergoing transformation.
The reasons include the explosion of the heterogeneity of devices that are
now deployed in modern infrastructures, which can deliver high-quality
data that have clear business relevance at a fraction of the cost compared
to some years ago. The usage of open standards is one promising way to go
to achieve large-scale manageability, however, it is not going to be enough.
The reasons lie in the increasing complexity not only of the devices them-
selves, but also on the constellations they take part in, and how their function-
alities are used in modern applications. On top of this, applications are
not monolithic from one provider, but on the contrary depend on multiple
layers that are developed from other stakeholders. Hence, managing different
From Machine-to-Machine to the Internet of Things: Introduction to a New Age of Intelligence.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407684-6.00010-3 237
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
238 CHAPTER 10 Asset Management
remotely, which leads to more effective usage of the expertise and better
solutions to the maintenance problems (Cannata et al. 2009).
Cross-company communication is already a reality, but constrained at
enterprise-level operations without in-depth information that could trigger
sophisticated re-planning scenarios. However, with M2M real-time con-
nection to the devices, malfunctions can be quickly analyzed and resolved
with the help of multiple experts such as those with knowledge of the
specific process, those responsible for the hardware/software (HW/SW)
of the device, and potentially the field personnel on-site (as depicted in
Figure 10.1). All these can now collaborate using multiple Internet-based
technologies with seamless data, voice, and video integration over a future
e-maintenance platform.
Communication done directly (e.g. via common trusted third-party service
providers) may simply couple the two companies for the specific business
case, and remove the overhead of costly home-grown solutions by propagating
all the necessary information to the affected stakeholders. Synergies can
be identified, and information that was too costly to be obtained in a timely
Process
Asset Subject
Manufacturer Intra-Company
Matter
maintenance
Expert
Platform
- Monitoring
- Firmware Updates
- Maintenance Direct Device
Examination
Company A
Intra-Company
maintenance
Platform
Preventive Maintenance
Updates/Upgrades
Remote Diagnostics
On-demand Analytics
Asset Usage & Performance Maintenance
Value added services personnel Company B
FIGURE 10.1
Outsourced remote continuous cross-company e-maintenance.
242 CHAPTER 10 Asset Management
manner can now flow into cross-company applications and services. This
approach is very well-suited for dynamic and short-lived interactions that can
be set up, exploited, and removed as easy as a simple composite service.
Cross-company collaboration allows us to realize new functionality and
innovate on services offered (Cannata et al. 2009). Especially in the case
of outsourcing of maintenance, specialized partners can now bring in their
expertise and monitor remotely the devices on the shop floor and maintain
them. Assets on which the company operates may in the future not be
owned by the company as such, but instead be provided to them over spe-
cific service level agreements (SLAs), e.g. a production line with uptime
of 99%. How this is achieved and maintained is the responsibility of the
service provider. As a result, companies can now focus more on their core
business, while SLAs can regulate shop-floor performance that better
matches the business process goals, but not how this is achieved, which
is the responsibility of the e-maintenance partner. This can facilitate the
development of new business models based on remote maintenance service
delivery through e-maintenance platforms.
Detailed Asset
Status
Storage Area
Status
M2M
Backend Business logic
On premise Status
Management
Room Alarm
On-Asset Alarm
P2P
communication
and hazardous
situation detection
Hazardous Goods Storage Area
FIGURE 10.2
M2M-enhanced Hazardous Goods Management in CoBIs.
10.5 Conclusions
Asset management is an area that can hugely benefit from M2M. New
innovative solutions can be realized that take advantage of the networked
embedded devices on-premise, the information they provide, and the col-
laboration with enterprise systems. However, for such solutions to be
adopted, several challenges, such as complexity management, interopera-
bility, security, and quality of service (QoS)-guaranteed communication
have to be tackled, especially when scenarios involving critical infrastruc-
tures are involved. Nevertheless, there is a huge potential for many diverse
domains where new business models and opportunities will arise with
asset management.