A manufacturer recently lost more than $100,000 in downtime-related costs after an unknown individual made a timing change in an automated grease system. A timer that previously injected grease every 20 minutes was modified to inject grease every eight hours. The resulting mechanical wear required a premature machine rebuild.
        Hundreds of assets on any plant floor—such as employeesCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, machines, tools—are valuable enough to insure. But what about the unseen valuables? What about intellectual property? Thousands of hours are spent developing IT applications, automation systems, processes and procedures that help manage a company and deliver a competitive advantage. Yet, this valuable body of knowledge often goes largely unprotected.
        Whether it’s hard machine costs or softer “knowledge costs,” use of asset management software can reduce the amount. In the case of the $100,000 grease mistake, asset management software’s security measures could have added user privileges to help prevent unauthorized changesCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, and provided audit log functionality to detail system changes.
        Elsewhere, such software programs can reduce downtime and boost the bottom line by providing version Control, audit trails, security layerswww.cechina.cn, and backup and recovery assistance.
        Version control. An asset management software application can automatically save new versions of the same unit of information—application source code控制工程网版权所有, blueprintsCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, electronic models, other information and documents—into a source-control repository. After changes are made, the newest version is automatically archived, using incremental versioning for clarity. The program also saves changesCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, archiving as many versions as storage space allows. This provides a faster and easier way to find current or old