Iron and Steel Industry manages asset performance with T-Pulse for Workplace Inspections

Unplanned Outages are a nightmarish scenario for process industries as they can cost up to 10X more than planned maintenance activities. That is why zero unplanned downtime is increasingly becoming a priority for organizations. Asset Failures have been identified as the leading causes of unplanned outages. Ideally, organizations should be able to identify defects and take preemptive measures in time to avoid such scenarios.  

However, manual methods of asset inspection/performance audit are expensive, time-consuming, and prone to safety hazards. Thankfully, with the advancement in digital solutions, it is finally possible to increase asset lifetime with real-time autonomous assessment.  

The maintenance team at a prominent steel facility in India wanted to automate workplace inspections with the aim of improving the reliability of their civil structures and chimneys. They intended to leverage advanced digital technologies like AI dashboards, robotics, sensors, cameras, and other connected IoT assets to automate visual, thermal, and sensory monitoring of the structures. 

Introducing the T-Pulse Maintenance Assistant for Workplace Inspections 

We at Detect have come together to accelerate digital transformation by automating and streamlining process-intensive industrial processes. Once contacted by the Iron and Steel enterprise, we spent no time understanding their requirements, workflows, and processes and got to work unifying other disparate aspects of operational data. Within the span of a week, we completely automated their inspection processes with T-Pulse Maintenance Assistant. Going a step further, we deployed our patented API technology to fully automate their UAV-based asset thickness data acquisition. 

An amalgamation of patented edge hardware and sophisticated numeric models, T-Pulse for Workplace Inspections, leverages deep learning AI algorithms to mine information on asset degradation and optimize maintenance activities. With T-Pulse Maintenance Assistant, the maintenance staff at this facility could finally – 

• Make sense of unstructured data aggregated from multiple visual, sensory, and thermal sources. 
• Pinpoint points of interest and isolate areas needing remediation. 
• Track component-wise spares and items needed to carry out maintenance activities. 
• Identify anomalies and deviations proactively. 
• Get expert insights, recommendations, and guidance for repairs. 
• Take corrective measures for improved asset availability and optimum production yield. 
• Implement change management policies and track progress in real time. 
• Track tasks, subtasks, progress, and delays via a centralized platform. 

Real-time asset performance management with T-Pulse for Workplace Inspections 

T-Pulse Maintenance Assistant extracts intelligence from visual and sensory asset monitoring data sources and aggregates it into a centralized performance management platform. Convert disparate data into intelligent recommendations and create a customized maintenance plan with T-Pulse for Workplace Inspections. 

In our steel plant implementation, over 500 civil structures and 100+ chimneys were selected to be managed. Apart from the convenience of managing everything from a single dashboard, our client experienced a 200% increase in data retention and referencing.  

From being able to inspect 1 asset every week, they could now inspect up to 5 assets every single day!  

Within the first 6 months of implementation, our client was able to identify 300+ critical observations, conduct more than 150 maintenance activities, and witness a 2X increase in decision-making. 

The Maintenance Assistant of T-Pulse for Workplace Inspections played a significant part in improving their asset availability and production yield and has formed the core of their predictive maintenance activities ever since.