The ability to monitor and control remotely-based
industrial assets can help drive overall operational
efficiencies and help reduce service calls. Mark McCormick
from Siemens Industry Automation & Drive Technologies
outlines a key operational area for companies to consider

It is often said that the world is becoming
a smaller place. Every aspect of our lives
points to ever-closer ties, with examples
ranging from the technological marvel of
Skype, to the ability to instantly shop in a
retail outlet on the other side of the world,
courtesy of the internet.

The industrial sector too has seen an
increasing need to link together critical assets.

Whether it is maintaining machines and
plants installed across the globe from a
central point, or a requirement to scan data
from distant outstations and mobile
applications, or controlling plant-wide
processes, the implementation of remote
access technology solutions can reap benefits
in terms of time and cost savings,
operational efficiency gains and optimised
performance from key remote assets.

Marketplace expectations are helping to
drive remote access solutions. Whereas five
years ago, customers had an expectation that a
fault on a production line or critical machine
could be rectified within a day or two after an
engineer’s visit – a fault that would result in
expensive downtime and lost production –
the reality today is that customers expect the
fault to be identified and rectified sometimes
within the hour. If the machine or plant is
located some distance away this can be an
issue. As a result we are seeing an increasing
requirement for industrial access solutions
that cater for remote access.

Some critical drivers are combining to
ensure industrial remote access capability is
now centre stage for many. The vast increase
in the use of unmanned plants due to cost
considerations has seen companies rely upon
the ability to keep critical assets performing
to their maximum. Just think of oil and gas
pipelines with outstations and metering
stations frequently located hundreds of miles
apart, or similar scenarios that exist in the
water supply and wastewater treatment,
power generation and distribution sectors.

Critical assets will often be unmanned, but
still require systems for monitoring, control
and maintenance objectives.

Access to specialist local engineering staff
may not be feasible in remote locations and
absence of appropriately skilled staff can add
to the issues facing companies seeking
solutions to such circumstances. The
advantages of technology which can deliver
remote access to gather, for example, realtime
process data, becomes self-evident in
the absence of skilled and costly personnel.

For the machine builder/OEM that has
developed and supplied critical assets for
export to all parts of the globe, the ability to
offer support to that machine remotely adds
an attractive element to help secure orders.

The benefit of enabling an engineer to
remotely undertake diagnostic fault-finding
via the internet or mobile connection
delivers both substantial time and cost
savings for both supplier and end user.

Linked to this, the ability to keep
downtime to a minimum and productivity to
a maximum is a pre-requisite these days.

Quickly identifying and rectifying
production line faults or developing
preventative maintenance strategies that
tackle potential problems or issues before
they become expensive can now sit at the
heart of the remote access offer.

Telecontrol and Teleservice are Siemens
services that help bring remote access
benefits to life. Telecontrol involves the
connection of distant process stations to one
or more central control systems. Various
public or private networks can be used for
communication for the purposes of
monitoring and control. Event-driven or
cyclic exchange of processing data is
performed with special Telecontrol protocols
and enables the operation personnel to
manage the overall process effectively from a
central location if required. The
combination of Telecontrol Server Basic
software – connecting the control centre to
the remote assets based upon SIMATIC S7-
1200 technology – with the new add-on
GPRS module (CP1242-7), offers a powerful
remote access solution for either small-scale
applications with a few outlying outstations
or to meet the needs of large-scale,
geographically spread plants.

Teleservice, which involves data exchange
over the telephone line or via the internet
with distant technical systems such as
machines, plants or computers for the
purpose of error detection, diagnostics,
maintenance, repair or machine
optimisation, offers an efficient, bespoke and
resource-saving answer to diagnose distant
systems, or to help plan and implement
preventative maintenance. Estimates indicate
that implementing such a solution has
reduced on-site service visits by up to 60%.

With everyone mindful of data security –
especially in the light of recent high profile
examples of data loss – remote access users
must ensure they select carefully to ensure
remote access solutions offer comprehensive
measures to prevent data falsification/loss.

Technology solutions such as Telecontrol
and Teleservice that are modular, flexible and
secure provide easy and efficient remote
access to machines and plants and can make
a tangible contribution to cost and
productivity effectiveness when managing
remote industrial assets.