Industrial plant asset management system: apparatus and method

A plant asset management system, comprising in combination:

• a plurality of sensors operatively coupled to plant assets including machinery for sensing asset data;
• data acquisition means operatively coupled to said plurality of sensors for receiving and processing said asset data,
• a database associated with said data acquisition means for storing said processed asset data;
• a graphical user interface operatively coupled to both said data acquisition means and said database and displayed on a display of a computer;
• a selection device operatively coupled to said computer for navigating about said graphical user interface;
• said graphical user interface including a hierarchical first view of a plurality of said plant assets displayed in a first window on said display of said computer and a two or three dimensional second view modeling at last one of said plant assets and displayed in a second window on said display of said computer;
• means for linking said hierarchical first view with said two or three dimensional second view for synchronizing said first and second views together to simultaneously display both said hierarchical first view of plant assets in said first window and said two or three dimensional second view modeling at last one of said plant assets in said second window;
• means for graphically navigating through said plant assets in either one of said first and second views by making a selection with said selection device of at least one of said plant assets in either one of said first and second views;
• said graphical user interface further including a third view comprised of at least one plot displayed in a third window on said display of said computer, and
• means for synchronously changing said first view, said second view and said third view in response to making said selection in either one of said first and second views for simultaneously displaying a hierarchical first view of plant assets including said selected plant asset in said first window, a corresponding two or three dimensional second view modeling at least said selected plant asset in said second window and a corresponding third view comprised of at least one plot plotting asset data associated with said selected plant asset such that said first, second, and third views synchronously navigate together in response to making said selection in either one of said first and second views for managing plant assets.

A method of managing plant assets, the step including:

• collecting and processing asset data from a plurality of measurement devices operatively coupled to plant assets including machinery;
• storing said processed asset data on a storage medium;
• interfacing with said storage medium via a computer means having a graphical user interface;
• displaying on said graphical user interface a hierarchical object first view including hierarchical objects representative of said plant assets;
• displaying on said graphical user interface a graphical object second view including graphical objects representative of said plant assets;
• interfacing with at least one of said objects displayed in either one of said first and second views;
• synchronizing said graphical object first view with said hierarchical object second view for synchronously changing said first and second views in response to interfacing with said at least one of said objects displayed in either one of said first and second views for simultaneously displaying said hierarchical object first view including said at least one of said objects being interfaced with and said graphical object second view modeling said at least one of said objects being interfaced with such that said first and second views synchronously navigate together in response to interfacing with said at least one of said objects displayed in either one of said first and second views, and
• accessing and displaying on said graphical user interface at least a portion of said processed asset data associated with said at least one of said objects interfaced with in either one of said first or second views for managing at least one of said plant assets represented by said at least one of said objects interfaced with in either one of said first or second views.

A plant asset management system, comprising in combination:

• data acquisition means operatively coupled to plant assets for receiving and processing asset data from said plant assets;
• a database operatively coupled to said data acquisition means for storing said processed asset data;
• a graphical user interface operatively coupled to said database and displayed on a display of a computer;
• a first window view of plant asset objects hierarchically displayed on said graphical user interface and representing said plant assets;
• means for correlating said processed data to said plant asset objects;
• means for configuring alarm parameters for said plant assets and storing said parameters in said database;
• means for applying said alarm parameters to said processed data correlated to said plant asset objects for determining plant assets in alarm;
• means for providing visual colored feedback of at least one of said plant assets in alarm by color highlighting each of said plant asset objects associated with said at least one of said plant assets in alarm, and
• means for navigating through said hierarchically displayed plant asset objects to a plant asset object representative of said at least one of said plant assets in alarm by iteratively expanding said color highlighted plant asset objects such that said visual colored feedback is followed to said plant asset object representative of said at least one of said plant assets in alarm.

A plant asset management system, comprising in combination:

• a data acquisition computer operatively coupled to a plurality of plant assets for receiving and processing asset data,
• a database operatively coupled to said data acquisition computer for storing said processed asset data;
• a graphical user interface operatively coupled to said database and displayed on a display of a computer;
• said graphical user interface displaying a plurality of plant asset objects in a first widow view representative of said plurality of plant assets;
• means for interfacing with said plurality of plant asset objects for accessing said processed asset data from said database;
• means for displaying a plurality of data sets of said accessed data on said graphical user interface, each data set including a cursor displayed there with;
• means for synchronizing one cursor in one of said plurality of data sets with another cursor in another of said plurality of data sets so that movement of said one cursor to a first parameter in said one of said plurality of data sets automatically results in synchronously driving said another cursor to a second parameter in said another of said plurality of data sets which is correlative to said first parameter.

A plant asset management system, comprising in combination:

• a data acquisition computer operatively coupled to a plurality of plant assets for receiving and processing asset data,
• a database operatively coupled to said data acquisition computer for storing said processed asset data;
• a graphical user interface operatively coupled to said database and displayed on a display of a computer;
• said graphical user interface displaying a plurality of plant asset objects in a first widow view representative of said plurality of plant assets;
• means for interfacing with said plurality of plant asset objects for accessing said processed asset data from said database;
• means for displaying a first graphical plot of said accessed data on said graphical user interface and storing said plot in said database;
• means for displaying subsequent graphical plots of said accessed data on said graphical user interface and storing said subsequent graphical plots in said database for defining a plot session viewable at a later time.

A plant asset management system, comprising in combination:

• a plurality of transducers operatively coupled to plant assets for sensing plant asset data;
• a plurality of different data acquisition devices including both online and offline data acquisition devices, each said different data acquisition device operatively coupled to at least one of said transducers for processing said sensed plant asset data;
• a plurality of data collector modules each operatively coupled to at least one of said different data acquisition devices for collecting plant asset data from said different data acquisition devices;
• a database operatively coupled to said data collector modules for storing said collected plant asset data;
• a graphical user interface operatively coupled to said database and including a hierarchical first view of a plurality of said plant assets displayed in a first window on a display of a computer and a two or three dimensional second view modeling at last one of said plant assets and displayed in a second window on said display of said computer;
• a selection device operatively coupled to said computer for navigating about said graphical user interface;
• means for linking said hierarchical first view with said two or three dimensional second view for synchronizing said first and second views together to simultaneously display said hierarchical first view of said plurality of said plant assets in said first window and said two or three dimensional second view modeling at least one of said plurality of said plant assets in said second window;
• means for graphically navigating through said plant assets in either one of said first and second views by making a selection with said selection device of at least one of said plant assets in either one of said first and second views;
• means for synchronously changing said first view and said second view in response to making said selection in either one of said first and second views for simultaneously displaying said hierarchical first view of plant assets including said selected plant asset in said first window and said two or three dimensional second view modeling at least said selected plant asset in said second window such that said first and second views synchronously navigate together in response to making said selection in either one of said first and second views;
• means for accessing said stored data including both online and offline stored data associated with at least said selected plant asset and in response to making said selection in either one of said first and second views, and
• means for simultaneously displaying on said graphical user interface said first and second views and at least a portion of said accessed stored data including both online and offline stored data associated with at least said selected plant asset for managing said plant assets.