Mobile Electrician Workers

Capital investments are scarce, employment is down and manufacturing is barely ticking over in much of the world, but purveyors of mobile computing hardware, software and wireless infrastructure are still seeing steady — in some cases, aggressive — growth. Word is out about increases in productivity, effective knowledge management and positive culture change in companies that hand out handhelds. Now the barriers to implementation are under siege.
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* Case Study: Huntsman Extends IT to Its Field Operations
* White Paper: Unlocking the Value of Mobile Computing

Life is more competitive,” says Joe Granda, executive vice president, marketing, Syclo (www.syclo.com), which is expanding its mobile software and systems integration workforce. “Organizations have gone to a lot of effort to streamline activities — six sigma, asset management, supply chain — and they’ve done a pretty good job of improving productivity and processes. So what’s the next step? Mobile.”Mobile computing lets companies leverage office system improvements in the field. You can reduce cycle times to reduce labor costs, improve customer satisfaction and increase product quality; get information into the hands of people and back into the system; and handle regulatory compliance with documentation for the EPA, FDA and Sarbanes-Oxley.

Better information management is breaking down barriers between production and maintenance. “As companies put in more maintenance management systems because costs are high and equipment is breaking down, they find that they now know what the backlog is, but they’re not catching up,” says David Dollar, product manager for IntelaTrac at Wonderware (www.wonderware.com). Operators can collect condition data to help them operate within the design envelope and keep the process or machine tuned. “They can extend the time between maintenance and notify maintenance earlier if a problem starts to occur, so you replace a bearing instead of a shaft and bearing,” Dollar says. Along with extending intervals based on more proactive operation, you can empower operators with correct procedures and focused advice, and lead them through minor troubleshooting.

Mobile devices also are being used to capture uninstrumented process data. Some 40% of equipment isn’t instrumented or has only local gauges. Operators often open or close valves manually, setting positions with verbal communications, and the records are poor. Mobile devices can bring those values into the process historian, allowing the operator to feed information into multiple systems of record.

For example, EPA requires inspections of flanges and valves for fugitive emissions. “You attach RFID tags — not bar codes that can be copied — at the locations,” Dollar says. “You have to be within two inches to scan them, then answer questions to confirm the inspection. Reports are e-mailed to the EPA. The EPA visits less often because the inspections are rigorous and documented, and the EPA accepts them.”

The same wireless infrastructure can be shared among mobile computing, security, building management and control systems. It can reduce capital expenditures and improve reliability when adding measurements for monitoring and controlling equipment, energy and emissions.

“The business case for mobile workers is compelling,” says Paul Brooks, business development, networks, Rockwell Automation (www.ra.rockwell.com). But as shown in Table 1, research shows that manufacturers also see some challenges.