[font=times] ABB takes asset management into a new dimension [/font]
[font=times][Color=#708090]2008-01-04 - ABB’s device management and asset optimization solution, Asset Master, packs the functionality and benefits of the world’s leading process automation system into a small, uniquely comprehensive package.
Launched in June 2007, Asset Master is generating widespread interest throughout the automation industry for successfully integrating more features, functionalities and system compatibilities than any other asset management system.
Designed to assist engineering and maintenance staff, the solution manages up to 500 ABB and non-ABB devices in all areas of field instrument engineering, commissioning and maintenance. It monitors devices like flow meters, analyzers, actuators, and control valves, detects any faults and recommends alternative actions. It can even issue a work order.
Asset Master is a scaled-down version of ABB’s flagship automation platform, System 800xA, using the same desktop PC interface.
So it can be easily integrated with System 800 xA, or any distributed control system.
Yet it also provides – for the first time – a complete asset management application that runs on a user-friendly, stand-alone, Windows-based desktop PC.
This is important for manufacturers who need to manage production assets but don‘t want to install a full distributed control system. The software communicates with hard-wired instrumentation using all three leading communication protocols: HART, PROFIBUS, and FOUNDATION FIELDBUS.
A version is being developed to support more than 500 devices.
It stands alone
Its comprehensive range of primary functions covers the entire spectrum of needs in device configuration, commissioning, diagnostics and real-time asset optimization.
No other standalone asset management system offers such a comprehensive range of capabilities and compatibilities.
Significantly, Asset Master provides users with a number of key benefits which differentiate it from other standalone asset management systems:
• Asset Master supports ABB and third-party devices communicating via all three leading fieldbuses – HART, PROFIBUS and FOUNDATION
• Asset Master not only provides detailed information on the condition of a device, it also identifies the probable cause of a problem and suggests one or more corrective actions.
• Asset Master assesses the severity of a device fault on a scale of low to most critical, to ensure that operators and maintenance engineers can prioritize problems and manage their time and resources efficiently.
• Asset Master can be integrated with leading computerized maintenance management systems like SAP and MRO Maximo to trigger work order submissions and track them to completion from the Asset Master workplace.
• Because Asset Master is a scaled-down version of System 800xA, customers can easily progress to a System 800xA control system without a retrofit. Other asset management products do not use the same interface as their control systems.
• Asset Master is a standalone product that coexists with other distributed control systems.
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