Monday 13 October 2014

Device management wizard enhanced!

Useful functions added for routine patrol, maintenance reporting, and work handover!
The enhanced FieldMate™ Versatile Device Management Wizard R3.01 to be released at the end of the week (October 17, 2014) by Yokogawa. FieldMate is a versatile software program for configuring, adjusting, and managing a wide variety of field devices used in factories and other production sites. A trial version of R3.01 is available on their website now.

In addition to the device configuration, adjustment, and management functionality provided in earlier FieldMate releases, FieldMate R3.01 comes with new functions that facilitate the management of memos, photos, and videos as well as the automatic generation of reports, making it ideal for routine maintenance tasks.

Development Background
Digital communications standards are playing an increasingly important role in communications between central control systems and field devices such as transmitters and analyzers. However, as the devices provided by different vendors rely on a variety of digital communications standards, there is a need for a versatile configuration, adjustment, and management tool that can support all the major industry-standard communications protocols. The FieldMate PC software has been developed to meet this very need.

Highly portable devices such as tablets and notebook PCs are now available that facilitate maintenance work in the field. To facilitate such routine tasks as device patrol and maintenance, this new release of the FieldMate PC-based software comes with a variety of new functions.

Enhancements
FieldMate R3.01 runs on PCs (including tablet PCs) that have either Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Its key new features are as follows:

1. Centralised management of various types of device-related information
In addition to being able to manage configuration data for a large number of plant devices, FieldMate now supports the use of photo, video, audio, and document files. Field maintenance personnel can write memos and link them to specific devices to facilitate processes such as work handover. They can also use photos, video, and audio to, for example, keep a record of installation conditions, work procedures, or any unusual sounds produced by a device. FieldMate R3.01 thus offers improved versatility for routine device patrol and maintenance work.

2. Automatic generation of device reports
The new FieldMate can now automatically generate device configuration reports in a variety of data formats. Previously, FieldMate only had the ability to output such data as a text or HTML file, which could then be used in a general-purpose spreadsheet or word processing program to create a report. Typically, manual reporting was very time-consuming because of the large amounts of data involved, with individual devices having anywhere from a few hundred to up to one thousand settings.

Major target markets include process industries such as oil, petrochemicals, chemicals, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, foods, and iron and steel which require the configuration, adjustment, and troubleshooting of transmitters, analyzers, and other types of field devices in plants, and the management of information on these devices

• FieldMate Lite, a trial version of FieldMate R3.01, is available for download here.

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