Delegates at ApplyIT's annual SMART Summit user group at the Alpine Heath in the Drakensberg last week learned how major manufacturing and technology trends are set to impact on the company's Operations Suite in upcoming versions.
The new mobile platforms unlock several valuable possibilities, with examples given how ApplyIT's IntelliPERMIT will be enhanced with field-based transactions, such as on-site risk assessments, permit status updates and safety inspections.
Delegates were given a preview of a mobile risk assessment solution built on an industrial-grade mobile device. Capabilities of industrial mobile devices now also include offline/online synchronisation, geospatial coordinates from built-in GPS receivers, cameras, RFID tag readers and barcode scanners, all of which unlock possibilities to improve operations performance and safety which ApplyIT intends to exploit for customers. ApplyIT's Scott Bredin and Henry Fourie showed delegates several examples of where this would contribute to safer operations such as on-site verification of workplace inspections prior to work taking place.
"With the continued reduction in cost of data storage and new, powerful database technologies, predictive analytics becomes more viable and this is a key strategic area for ApplyIT in developing future OpSUITE versions," says Gavin Halse, MD ApplyIT.
OpSUITE already contains a significant percentage of all transactions that happen in day-to-day plant operations, which form a basis for useful analysis and predictions. In the same way a GPS enhances decision-making when driving using predefined maps (rules) and wirelessly delivered traffic patterns, the next versions of OpSUITE will use historical patterns augmented with current state-of-plant updates to predict unsafe conditions and help ensure safe work and improved operations performance.
Effective isolation management is an existing strength of OpSUITE, and delegates learned how Newmont Asia Pacific has used IntelliPERMIT to manage a complex and distributed isolation management system at the new open cast gold mine in Boddington, Australia.
The use of FlexiLOG to aggregate and summarise context-based information and combine this with process control information to improve fuel management in a large utility was demonstrated through a case study presented by Rifle-Shot, an accredited ApplyIT channel partner. The project payback in this instance was less than one month and further sustainable savings are expected.
Companies implementing standards such as ISO9000 and ISO14000 can benefit from a single central quality management system, and NCP Alcohols showed how this was successfully achieved in a short space of time using SmartSURE.
The loss of experience from the manufacturing industry as people retire was identified as a common concern to all companies present. Computer-based technologies integrated into OpSUITE to deliver refresher-based training for specific competencies required to perform work safely was well received, with several examples presented by ApplyIT's training partners where this can be used to complement existing training programmes.
Halse predicts that in addition to other developments, "OpSUITE will include elements of cloud computing and software as a service within 18 months as a result of closely working with Microsoft on a new solution fulfilment model based on the Azure platform".
This means that alternative models for OpSUITE licensing and support are likely in a similar timeframe. Dave Brennan, services and sales manager, reminded delegates that ApplyIT's success has been based on customer led innovation and development and invited users to further build a community and innovate together with ApplyIT's development group.
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