Engineering information systems for operations and maintenance -- the missing link?

摘要

For the past ten years I have been involved with the selection, configuration and implementation of many of the leading maintenance management systems and document management systems. What surprises me is that whilst these solutions each addressparticular needs, neither totally satisfies the requirements of the engineering cornmunity.Most major companies have many engineering database islands. Why is it then that these companies do not have a single engineering database, sitting on Oracle, say, which has the capacity to provide and preserve the data required for plant changes, themaintenance management system and the document management system, as depicted in Fig 1?This paper discusses some of the shortfalls of typical maintenance management systems and document management systems and provides a short script of some of the difficulties experienced by frustrated users. The paper goes on to illustrate some of thefunctionality needed by those responsible for the technical integrity of process plant and suggests that the strategic view and implementation of an engineering information management system (EIMS) is often more essential that the traditional systems such as maintenance management and document management.