This paper describes the main components of Asset Excellence Solution, followed by the concept and technological background of AE as an introduction to the special issue of Asset Excellence Solution. The paper also summarizes its advantages and the trend toward cooperation with other companies.

We have developed PRM3.0, an improved version of the PRM (Plant Resource Manager) unified device management software package for various field resources. Since PRM was released in 2001, the industry has gone through some major changes in circumstances surrounding PRM, with increasing prevalence of field networks, improvements in device diagnostic technologies and a change in the way asset management is regarded. There are now great demands for improvements in the Plant Asset Management (PAM) process, in order to optimize plant conditions while minimizing cost. In response, Yokogawa Electric proposed the Asset Excellence (AE) solution, consisting of PRM, FieldMate, and other asset management solutions. PRM has been enhanced with revolutionary improvements, allowing it to function as a long-term platform for PAM. This paper describes the requirements in PAM, and the PRM features that satisfy these requirements.

We have developed FieldMate, a field device management tool for the new era, and released it in July 2006. FieldMate is software designed to be used with a notebook PC to efficiently facilitate configuration, adjustment, and replacement of field devices that support communication protocols such as Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART), FOUNDATION™ fieldbus H1, or Process Field Bus (PROFIBUS). FieldMate provides an integrated task environment independent of the communication protocol, as well as simple operating procedures to greatly improve the above field device operations. This paper describes the technical features of FieldMate.

We have developed FieldMate, a field device configuration software package offering a graphical interface and easy operation, by adopting FDT/DTM (Field Device Tool/Device Type Manager), a new open framework for field device tools. FDT defines the data exchange interface between field devices and each of the control systems, engineering tools and asset management system tools. A DTM is a software component that works on the framework and facilitates operation through a graphical interface. Many field device vendors including Yokogawa develop and provide DTMs which work on any control systems that have the same framework. FDT/DTM is becoming popular in not only the process automation industry but also the factory automation industry. This paper describes the characteristics of FDT/DTM and gives a technical overview.

The aim of VigilantPlant AE (Asset Excellence) is to achieve high performance in plant operation. Improvement of the plant operation rate is a key to reliable and safe operation, as well as to reducing operation costs and improving efficiency. In addition to conventional periodic inspection and maintenance, advanced diagnostics contributes to the realization of reliable and safe operation by using intelligent sensors even during plant operation. Field instruments, such as differential transmitters and flow meters, are able to measure process values, calculate process variables, and send diagnostics information to the host system. This paper introduces diagnostics technology that provides great improvements in plant performance and system availability for less cost.

To maintain plant equipment for production in good condition at reasonable cost, it is important to monitor equipment conditions. This requires a wide range of online diagnoses to cover many types of equipment and handle the diagnostic results in a consistent manner. This paper describes how PRM (Plant Resource Manager), a plant asset management system of Yokogawa Electric, performs online diagnoses through functional collaboration with instruments and how it handles the diagnostic results in a consistent way.

The debut of FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus, which is based on bi-directional digital communication, enables the use of various measurement data collected from intelligent field devices. When FOUNDATION Fieldbus was first introduced, the merit for conventional instrumentation systems was that it reduced construction costs by reducing field cables, wiring cost, etc. However, the demand for Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) has increased. To achieve the ideal plant, it is essential to maintain assets in their best condition at the optimum cost. Yokogawa has proposed Asset Excellence (AE) as a solution for sophisticated asset management, and is now rolling out the service (InsightSuiteAE). This paper describes the overall features of InsightSuiteAE.

Recently, with the digitization of field devices and advancement of diagnostic functions of equipment, it has become possible to predict equipment breakdowns. Prediction information is notified to remote integrity staff as messages, and is used for early integrity maintenance of equipment. Sometimes it may be more effective for operational quality to inform the operator. With the integration of alarm management which notifies various alarm messages appropriately and plant equipment management which manages the state of equipment, Asset Excellence (AE) achieves seamless maintenance and operation as well as Lifecycle Excellence. This paper introduces the merits of combining the plant resource management function of Plant Resource Manager (PRM), which is an AE platform, with operations.