Fraunhofer IPK Study on Asset and Infrastructure Management

Growing Service Market in the Capital Goods and Equipment Sector; Requirements concerning MRO Processes increase

In more and more companies today, a large part of the value is created by services accompanying the lifecycle of capital goods and equipment. This trend has been intensified by the current economic crisis, as fewer new investments mean that older equipment has to be kept running for longer and longer, upping demand for repair, maintenance or overhauling services. Like the economic significance, efficient management of such MRO Processes (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) and accordingly the application of dedicated software are becoming more and more important. Against this background, the Bremen-based company CONTACT Software GmbH contracted the Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik (IPK – Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology), Berlin, Germany, to conduct a market survey on asset and infrastructure management. This study focuses on which IT functions are important to optimally support the various lifecycle phases of goods and equipment. Focus of the study were the specific requirements in the “energy” and “traffic/transport” industries.

The Fraunhofer IPK is co-initiator and co-ordinator of the Fraunhofer innovation cluster “Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) in Energy and Traffic”, in which partners from research and industry work together on the development of sustainable MRO processes and technologies. The new processes are set to help make tasks such as maintenance and repair of energy systems and traffic engineering more effective end efficient. The focus is on goods and equipment with high investment costs and long lifetime, such as gas and steam turbines, wind and solar power systems, air, rail and road vehicles and the necessary infrastructures, e.g. railway or power networks.

The study findings have shown that a key feature of the processes in this sector is individual, grown IT systems. “Characteristic are IT solutions that are not integrated in a continuous product lifecycle,” explains Haygazun Hayka, Manager of the Department for Information Management in Virtual Product Creation at IPK, who held primary responsibility for this study. “In addition, MRO procedures are often still planned, conducted and documented in a paper-based process.” But, according to the IPK analysis, procedures that have so far tended to be managed casually and often in combination with MS Excel & Co., are being assigned more and more importance by companies. Consequently, there is a growing market for solutions that on the one hand offer dedicated MRO functions and on the other hand enable integrated processes and unhindered data flow along the entire product lifecycle. On example is the plant file that contains the virtual product with its configuration and technical documents to drawings, operating and maintenance documents as well as current data on the physical product in the state “as maintained”.

Consequently, Lifecycle Asset Management spans all lifecycle phases of goods and equipment, from commissioning through operation up to decommissioning and disposal. “An integrated solution for infrastructural management of energy systems, traffic/transport networks or harbours provides information on which components are used where at every point in time during the often decades-long use,” explains Roland Drewinski, Manager of Marketing at CONTACT Software. “The corresponding plant file enables you to obtain precise information on every detail whenever you need it.”