Technical Support

Technical Support and Maintenance Service

With a technical team comprised of qualified engineers with an average 10 years of experience, the TSD is the center of technical excellence for Yokogawa systems in the Middle East & Africa. The main functions of the TSD are maintenance services, start-up & commissioning support, upgrade solutions, customer training, and technical consultation for the full range of Yokogawa systems and products.

Maintenance Services

Are provided as an Annual Maintenance Contract or on Engineer call out basis. Services include Emergency breakdown service, Remote maintenance service, Periodic & Shutdown maintenance, Telephonic Support, Response Centre Middle East & Africa (RCMA) Support, PRM-KPI Tool, Guaranteed Support Services, Technical Audit, Environmental Analysis, Technology Refresh, Application Support, Resident Engineer Support, Repair, Software Upgrade Services and Parts Management Program.

Emergency is mainly provided to reduce the downtime (if any) of the system. Since the system is maintained with requisite availability of online redundancy, immediate focus is given to attend the failures to ensure no degradation on the system availability. Engineers are on standby 24x7 for support any such eventualities with defined response time and visit the plant as required. Emergency support is provided on an immediate basis with the response time as agreed in the contract.

Remote Maintenance Service (RMS) is a service wherein Yokogawa service engineer checks the users systems remotely from Bahrain. Remote Maintenance Support may be used, to remotely troubleshoot any hardware / software related problems of the control system. RMS is utilized to check all the messages of the system, hardware status of the components, and source of trouble. This not only guarantees quick response time on site but also Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). Note that all security requirements shall be in place. This shall be discussed with concerned Customer IT personnel before implementation. A detailed RMS report is issued that will include the status of the system and the cause of the trouble if any.

As a standard production procedure, potential factors for improving the system is built into the design and this can only be embodied if recommended periodic maintenance procedures are adhered to once the system is in operation. A Periodic Maintenance or Preventive Maintenance plan, as it is often called, call for regular checks to fix the issues or avert any potential damage.

This includes:

  • Routine Maintenance checks: Mostly carried out by the user’s maintenance team
  • Periodic Checks: Carried out by the Yokogawa Service Engineer as per standard procedures.

The Periodic checks are an on-line maintenance work on users system without having to stop the plant operation.

Periodic maintenance is provided to guarantee a continuous and smooth operation of the system. During periodic visits operating conditions of the Yokogawa system is confirmed and discussed with the user for any non-conformity and the same shall be checked and inspected. Necessary backup of the application software shall be made during the periodical maintenance.

Shutdown maintenance is carried out during the complete plant shutdown. Calibration of I/O Modules, Test program for the controllers and the operator consoles are executed to check the performance and the healthiness of the system. A thorough system check enables to clearly identify the system deterioration which enables the service engineer to recommend best practices for routine and periodic maintenance.

Telephonic Support:
This support is available for Customer to call Yokogawa engineer on need basis to discuss technical issues or any relevant points which do not fall under emergency support.

Response Centre Middle East & Africa (RCMA):
Yokogawa manages a centralized technical call Centre which has been used by Customer and this has proven be very useful in getting responses for any queries related to their systems and products. Logging of cases happens automatically and can be tracked by Customer easily via the customer portal.

Plant Resource Manager (PRM) KPI Tool
PRM KPI analysis is provided as a service to support maintenance staff in sites where intelligent devices like HART and Foundation Fieldbus (FF) are installed. Data gathered from this tool is analyzed off-line and recommendation to maintenance is sent. The recommendation help in fixing the “bad actors (field devices)”, get rid of unnecessary alarms/alerts and proactive fix issues.

Guaranteed Service
This is a value added service covers an assured resolution of failure of control system hardware in a guaranteed recovery time thus reducing the plant downtime.

Based on the KPI performance and KPI achievement a financial model can be derived. Guaranteed service assures management of installed assets, Maximize return on investment with reduced (no) risks, predictable spare parts investment for the lock-in period which is a cost effective alternate to managing own inventory, obsolescence protection with no impact on increased spare parts costs, reduction in infrastructure and management costs and allow Customer to manage core internal requirements.

Technical Audit:
The Objectives of this audit is to ensure that the functional & Operational safety of the system is maintained during operation and maintenance.

The main functions of this audit are:
- To make sure that hazard and risk assessment recommendations are implemented
- Safety Requirements Specification is followed in design, construction and implementation of all the modifications and expansions done in the target system.
- Periodic review of Operating, maintenance and safety procedures pertaining to safety of the systems.
- System validation for all the modifications and expansions done in the system after the initial validation during the project phase.
- Recommendations from previous assessments have been resolved.

Environmental Analysis:
Keeping the control room environment is mandatory for system to function well. If the environment is maintained as per the stipulated conditions life cycle of the parts can be extended, this has been proven with good statistics. Yokogawa environment monitoring, analysis and recommendation service can be provided, with clear recommendations for improvement. During the periodic visits, data is gathered for various parameters to ensure the consistent environment as per the specifications.

Technology Refresh
PC’s used for the operator stations get obsolete at a faster pace. This program helps to manage and upgrade the PC’s at fixed intervals during the agreement to keep them updated and green. With this support, operators can benefit the use of the latest software with the updated Yokogawa system.

Process information Management System (PIMS) Services:
This service is to provide the Exa package license and support during the agreement period. These packages include EXAOPC, EXA-QUANTUM etc. Yearly license fee includes the support rendered and patch upgrades the installed packages in Customer.

Resident Engineer Service:
Our Resident Engineer program strives to integrate as members of customer’s plant operations & engineering support staff to serve as an onsite resource for all technical aspects. Certified competent engineers who fully understands customer’s automation systems, allows for quicker problem resolution & helps customers to achieve minimum downtime & maximum productivity.

The goal of the Resident Engineers is to provide customers with proactive assistance in improving the operational readiness of plant’s automation systems & staff.

Repair service is also provided for certain agreed system components in the contact. Upon failure YME shall ensure that these cards are repaired and tested.

Software/Hardware upgrade service is provided for the contract users to revise their system software or Hardware to the latest available revision level. The required study to confirm the compatibility with the application software and the available level of the revision is done by YME and required support for the same is provided.

A comprehensive report with recommendations shall be submitted to the user upon completion of the above service activity.

Parts Holding Service provides the user an option to stock the spare parts, manage and maintain them on-site or at YMA Spare parts categorized as critical, non-critical and consumables are maintained by YMA. These are consumed depending on the requirement and replenished by Yokogawa within the time specified and agreed in the contract. YMA will inspect and ensure that good environmental conditions are maintained for storage facilities and comply with all safety requirements.

Start-up & Commissioning Services

Include installation supervision, System power up, pre-commissioning and Commissioning support at User's site in Middle East & Africa

Once the system is delivered to site after the completion of Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), Technical support department personnel take over the site activates to supervise the installation of system, conduct Site Acceptance Test (SAT), and further support the user in pre-commissioning and Commissioning activities.

Service Projects (Modification / Migration / Upgrade / Small Expansion)

The projects team within the Services organization handles the Modification, Expansion and Upgrade needs of the installed base Systems. The team is equipped with Sales, Engineering and Sourcing expertise to provide the end to end service for such projects.

The Knowledge developed within the services department, about the existing customer system through support, helps understand the customer needs and provide optimum solutions matching the growing customer needs.

The solutions offered include all the Yokogawa product lines DCS, Safety Systems, SCADA, Field solutions, Analyzers and Plant information management system.

Technical Consultation

Includes support to Customers on application modification, System expansions, maintenance aspects and Field Bus. Solutions for various applications are provided


Top