Maintaining Plant Equipment with Embedded IT

Keywords: EAM, IT, Maintenance, Software Patch Management.

Nearly all control systems and much plant equipment have embedded IT technology in the form of PCs with Microsoft Windows and Ethernet switches or ports. Most organizations focus their enterprise asset man-agement (EAM) systems on maintaining the mechanical and electrical systems in the plant and field operations. The associated embedded IT becomes either neglected or left to the IT groups that have separate systems for maintaining software. With the mistrust between engineering and IT in most organizations, the IT-based components often get neglected, creating vulnerabilities and reliability issues. Without a more cooperative relationship, independent scheduling to perform the required updates can introduce additional (and often unnecessary) production interruptions.

ARC Advisory Group's research indicates that it's better to use one system for scheduling maintenance of plant equipment, with the EAM system the preferred choice. This improves uptime and reliability, and ensures more holistic asset information and history.

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