EPLAN: Maintenance in the cloud
May 2, 2019
Cloud applications offer a variety of new possibilities. These possibilities can be extensive when one cog interlocks with the next across disciplines. Or, in more concrete terms regarding the EPLAN and Heitec example, when engineering and maintenance “talk to one another”. The showcase of an interface between EPLAN eVIEW, a new cloud-based tool, and HeiMAX, a mobile maintenance assistant, makes the coming smart factory technology understandable in Hanover.
How does it all work? EPLAN eVIEW provides a structure parts list that is transferred to HeiMAX. When maintenance is required, the service technicians can jump directly to the appropriate component in the schematics. If, for example, the servicing requires viewing the circuit logic, EPLAN eVIEW provides this data. The best thing about it: the use of EPLAN eVIEW, for which users in Hanover can register free of charge on the basis of the cloud system EPLAN ePulse, is all that is needed. No traditional EPLAN license is required to view the project. It is simply made available in the cloud and, as an example, switching out components can be commented on using the EPLAN eVIEW redlining function.
This provides numerous tangible benefits for maintenance technicians and system operators: Component data from the EPLAN documentation, which are recorded in the wiring diagrams or parts lists, do not need to be entered manually any longer. They are centrally imported from the EPLAN eVIEW data model into the HeiMAX application. This means a digital workflow replaces documentation on paper, which too often remains the state of the art today.
In the event of a malfunction, for instance, the service technicians can jump directly to the component in the schematic that is causing the problem. The entire original electrical engineering documentation created in EPLAN Electric P8 can be immediately viewed in EPLAN eVIEW. All information about the component is available in mere seconds.
Background
Maintenance checklists are often only available in paper form, not in a digital version. In many cases, maintenance documentation is also incomplete – which makes defining and adjusting maintenance intervals very complicated. The mobile maintenance assistant HeiMAX puts an end to such cumbersome processes. It can be used either in the cloud or as an offline version via a web server installation. All available data for maintenance of machines and plants are centrally coordinated in HeiMAX. This considerably accelerates service and maintenance and provides 100 per cent digital data.
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