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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.