Sysadvance uses LogTunnel to monitor production efficiency across 2800+ remote installations

LOG AND MONITOR PRODUCTION AND EFFICIENCY IN REAL TIME

Sysadvance had no way of communicating with its worldwide network of gas generators and purification plants. Nor could it prove to its customers that their gas equipment was working as promised. Secomea and its unique LogTunnel product transformed the situation. Sysadvance’s maintenance teams can monitor equipment health, while their process engineers can log and monitor production and efficiency in real time.

“Secomea brought us the ability to keep a reliable connection to our client’s plants on a 24/7 base. Having LogTunnel allowed us to build a remote turn-key solution to monitor and operate all our plants around the world„

– Tiago Vilas Boas, Instrumentation & Control Engineer.

The Challenge:

Monitoring and maintenance challenges

Sysadvance was founded in 2002 and continues to provide its worldwide customer base with hi-tech industrial gas equipment supported by first-class customer service.

As the number of operational units increased (currently more than 2800), Sysadvance’s monitoring and maintenance challenges became more pressing. Many units were in remote and inaccessible locations. There was no direct communication, so Sysadvance did not know how well its equipment was performing and could not tell customers if their units were achieving the advertised output. Lack of real-time data also made Sysadvance slower to respond to faults than it would like to be. This started to become a serious shortcoming for a company that takes pride in its high levels of customer service.

The solution:

Back in control of its network

Sysadvance turned for help to the Portuguese automation experts, Sensordin. Sensordin understood the problem and realized straight away that Secomea would put Sysadvance back in control of its network.

Using a combination of Secomea’s LinkManager, LinkManager Mobile, SiteManager, and GateManager with its Domain Administrator, Sensordin answered four of Sysadvance’s business needs: remote access for servicing and maintenance, remote system monitoring, the sending of alarm calls by email or SMS, and the ability to control who has access to remote sites or equipment. This set-up gave Sysadvance a live picture of the status of its entire network of equipment. It would know instantly if there was a fault, could respond to issues before they become problems, and fix many of them remotely.

A fifth business need – the day-to-day ability to log and monitor production and process data – was a bigger challenge. Only one product in the entire world could solve it: Secomea’s LogTunnel.

Using LogTunnel, Rockwell’s Automation FactoryTalk View SE, and VantagePoint, a single process engineer at Sysadvance can keep track of the entire network. In real-time they can monitor production, process data (KPIs, OEEs, MTTR, MTBF, MTTF etc), and installation downtime. LogTunnel was easy to set up. Its drag-and-drop interface puts the whole process in the hands of production staff who can manage day-to-day performance data without the need for IT professionals.

The result:

Service levels that competitors cannot match

Secomea has transformed Sysadvance’s ability to provide industry-leading after-sales service. They’re not just on top of maintenance issues (remote servicing, preventive repairs etc), they’re way ahead of competitors in terms of their ability to monitor performance.

Sysadvance now sends monthly reports to all its customers with full details of production, savings, downtime, and efficiency. It has all the evidence its customers need to prove that their gas generators and purifiers are delivering the promised performance. And if any unit should underperform, Sysadvance can spot the decline as it happens, and rectify immediately. The system offers service levels that Sysadvance’s competitors cannot match.

“Secomea brought us the ability to keep a reliable connection to our client’s plants on a 24/7 base. Having LogTunnel allowed us to build a remote turn-key solution to monitor and operate all our plants around the world. Furthermore, Secomea’s solution granted us the ability to send SMS and e-mail messages triggered by an event in the SCADA system.

Based on these alerts, Sysadvance is able to provide a prompt troubleshoot of the situation and take action in order to mitigate any potential failure.

Additionally, having all this data of our units in different scenarios helps us to optimize, even more, the technology and predict component failure. All this infrastructure helps us see the big picture.” Says Tiago Vilas Boas, Instrumentation & Control Engineer.