COMAP - Asset management without company boundaries

The products, for example freight waggons, locomotives and wheelsets, are created and administrated in the Product Management. For each product a range of key data can be managed. In addition, measures taken or planned can be seen, as well as the assignment to the orders.

A product, which has been created, can be configured according to the definitions in the Structure Administration. All vehicles and components can be created manually or at the click of a button based on structural templates or type series.

Workshops have the opportunity to configure a waggon structure for reception (waggon arrival) and a structure for dispatch (waggon departure). Because of that it can be documented how the product was configured at the beginning and at the end of the stay at the workshop. This allows the user to document modification measures in workshops and enables hire companies to identify changes during a leasing period.

Sub-products can be installed in or removed from a product structure. For instance, a wheelset can be installed to a waggon and all of the wheelsets data, including the attached photographs and documents, can be taken over into the waggon. In principle, this function allows the installation and removal of all other components as well.

Electronic work papers allow recording the individual data, which is acquired per product, and reporting back work executed and used material. According to the work profile, the user will see exactly the fields he needs in his area of work. Besides, he can see at a glance which compulsory data he has to enter. This information is based on the order and maintenance plan. In addition to recording new values, unchanged values can be validated.

Technical data can be recorded online and offline. Offline means that the computer or the mobile device which is used for data recording does not have to be connected to the server. Therefore, waggon data can also be recorded when there is no WIFI or UMTS/LTE connection. The synchronization takes place as soon as the device has reconnected.

In addition to the technical data, work executed and material used attachments, for example photographs, documents and protocols can be assigned to a product. The assignment takes place through the technical structure. For instance, a photograph can be assigned to the bearing on the inner A side of the third wheelset of the waggon.

Individual maintenance levels can be defined in COMAP. If maintenance plans, projects and work steps shall be created, the additional components “Maintenance Plan”, “Project Management” and “Work Step Catalogue” are needed.

Maintenance plans, maintenance levels and work steps published through VPI-EMG 08 by VPI can be used in the COMAP Base Module.

The Structure administration is the basis for COMAP and allows the data modelling of products and components.

Product structures:
Product structures define all technical structures which form the basis for products (vehicles, wheelsets, etc.). Product structures determine composition and properties of products. Any kind of product structure can be created and administrated. Thus, COMAP is able to completely model locomotives, commuter trains or infrastructures.

Product types:
Product types can be defined based on product structures. A product type, for example, is a waggon, a wheelset or an engine. Moreover, it is possible to add other product types such as distributors, for instance. Products have the characteristic that they can be installed or removed in/from products and that they have their proper history.

With waggon and wheelset two product types are preconfigured in COMAP for VPI-EMG users.

List administration:
The list administration allows defining selection lists for data fields of product structures. These lists specify a set of entries which the user can pick from in data recording for the data fields that they are connected with. This facilitates the data entry for the employees and results in data that is easy to analyze.

Type series:
Type series allow the user to create templates for vehicles from which waggons or wheelsets are generated in the product administration. This way it is possible to define templates for waggons or trains with specific characteristics, such that a template could completely preconfigure a tank waggon with four wheelsets. In addition to the product structure, operating and maintenance limits can be defined. Corresponding maintenance levels can also be allocated to a type series to avoid false commissioning.

Part catalogue:
Part catalogues can be defined for each component in the product structure. It is possible to create, for example, a catalogue for brakes. In data recording these catalogues can be accessed. Selecting a part from a part catalogue executing a measure will automatically set the defined values of the selected part. Parts from the catalogue can be used in series and work steps as well. The part catalogues can be extended to fit the customers´ needs if necessary.

If COMAP is used to comply with VPI-EMG 08, the complete structure administration will be preconfigured by Sternico.

The following parameters can be accessed for each view:

The Material and Spare Part Management separately extends the technical information of part catalogues by information about quantity/stock, minimum quantity in stock as well as information about the storage location.

Within the work step catalogue it is possible to assign material to a work step. ECM/keeper can use the Material and Spare Part Management to control the replacement parts and material to be provided in different maintenance workshops.

Then the field will be assigned to the department “Production planning“ with rights to read and write in the field while the department “Production“ only gets rights to read. Now the department “Production planning“ can access the field for every waggon to set a priority but the department “Production“ can only read the priority.

The Master Data Management provides the opportunity to adapt COMAP to proper needs. Furthermore, it is possible to create the product-dashboard individually with different master data, contract data and technical data to have all necessary information available at a glance.

This component allows setting up complex maintenance plans with a simple to use graphical editor. The plans may contain cyclic elements as well as coupled elements and are fully versioned including an approval process to comply with ECM requirements. The software automatically creates future measures based on the maintenance plans. Plan maintenance stays based on time and operational parameters, such as mileage or motor hours. In case of planning based on operational parameters, COMAP forecasts the date of the next limit. To make use of operational parameters the component Operating data management must be licensed.

COMAP automatically assigns maintenance plans to assets using conditions. E.g. COMAP could assign maintenance plans based on the asset series, plan A is assigned to series 4711 and plan B is assigned to series 0815. Another way to set up a condition is the use of lessors.

This way it is possible to assign a different maintenance plan to an asset if the lessor transports special products, for instance in case of tank waggons which thus need a special treatment of gaskets. For a specific vehicle it is also possible to define that not the current version of a plan is valid for this vehicle, but a previous one.

It is also possible to set up component-based maintenance plans. Thus, for instance, it is possible to use time-based intervals for tank inspections and mileage-based parameters for wheelsets. According to the maintenance plans, COMAP plans and creates all measures including the correct maintenance levels automatically.

Control contractual lead-times and budgets combined with maintenance companies and maintenance levels and work to execute. Find overlong lead-times and interference factors easily using tabular and graphical reports and take appropriate actions.

This component allows the creation and administration of work step catalogues. Aside from work step code and name, instructions as well as drawings or other attachments can be specified for each work step. It is also possible to define which technical data has to be recorded when executing a work step. For the combination with material the component Material and Spare Parts Management is needed.

Set up work steps can be used to create maintenance levels and work sequences for repairs. For each vehicle and vehicle configuration individual maintenance levels can be created based on the linkage between work steps, part type catalogues and product structures. Defined work steps and maintenance levels can be planned and commissioned using the Measure Management.

In case that material was combined with a work step, this material can be reserved automatically. An interface to an ERP-system like SAP can be implemented to fit individual Needs. In this case the component Webservices is needed additionally.

An integrated version control permits monitoring all changes including a release process. The version control takes into account the work step itself as well as the maintenance levels. Changes on work steps will inform the user automatically regarding effects in maintenance levels.

If Sternico delivers the software with the preconfiguration for VPI-EMG 08, all work steps defined by VERS will be available.

The central function of this component is recording and managing defects. Different functionalities are available depending on the application area.

Defects found by a maintenance workshop or a RU/TOC can be recorded and classified.

Furthermore, it is possible to define repair procedures based on work step catalogues which can be accessed during the recording of defects. This way, the list of work steps to be executed for a maintenance procedure can be extended by those work steps necessary to rectify.

This component is used to plan shifts and qualifications of personnel. The shift planning in COMAP allows the administration of different shift rhythms and the assignment of personnel to shifts. Detailed shift plans can be created using week plans and a long term planning.

Qualifications and necessary trainings can be assigned to personnel and administrated. By linking qualifications to work steps COMAP ensures that only sufficiently qualified personnel can confirm the completion of work steps.

The Rule Designer serves the quality assurance of technical data recorded or imported. Templates can be created with the designer that define how technical parameters of a product are linked together. For example, a rule could be established which defines that only a certain type of wheelsets X can be installed in bogies of type Y. If this rule gets violated while entering data or importing data, COMAP indicates the incorrect data constellation.

The user can define as many rules as needed and connect them via logical links. In addition, mathematical operations can be used to verify, for instance, tolerances: |Diameter wheel A - Diameter wheel B| < 1mm.

The configuration is being carried out using a graphical user interface which allows addressing all structure elements, attributes, selection lists and parts.

Assuring the data quality when using digital data exchange plays a central role for ECM/keepers. By using digital data exchange with maintenance workshops many manual tasks will not be applied anymore, and part of the conventional quality assurance is reduced automatically. To build an efficient process that assures high quality, an automated validation of data using a proper rule based system is necessary.

Aside from existing checks for errors, maintenance workshops can assure that errors while entering data will be reported to the user instantly using the Rule Designer. This allows timely intervention in the maintenance process and corrections can be made.

To fill in the forms and documents correctly many functions can be used for the creation of place holders. It is possible to access many data objects in COMAP like technical data, work steps, contract data, etc. These functions can be used to model very complex reports. It is also possible to make functions generally available to ensure that multiple documents have access to the same function. This way the parametrization needs less effort. With one click a report is created that always contains live data.

For every document customer-specific templates that also support multilingualism can be configured. This allows, for example, to easily create the Operating Authorization reports for client A and client B which differ only in a few data fields.

Via a classification of single customers, using the Order Management, all documents related to an order can be generated instantly in the right language at one click. Automatically, the documents generated will be linked to the products, archived with the technical structure and sent to the customer electronically via VPI-EMG 08 for freight waggons and the norm for locomotives accordingly.

Additionally, COMAP includes the standard protocols which have been published in VPI-EMG 08 like the Operating authorization or the Wheelset repair document. These can be filled with data from the COMAP database and generated into PDF files.

This component allows to administrate all measuring equipment in the maintenance workshop. For each measuring device data like measuring units and measurement range can be specified aside from master data. Attachments like photos and documents can be stored as well as departments can be assigned to each measurement equipment. In addition, the calibration intervals of equipment are supervised. All calibration processes are version controlled with the relevant data.

A measuring equipment can be assigned to an attribute in the Structure Administration. In this case the software checks if measuring units of the device and the attribute coincide. This will influence the behavior of input fields in data recording and it can be guaranteed that a measuring equipment is specified.

Webservices can be used to connect external systems. They can be created and configured freely via the graphic user interface. The technical data and the order in which the data has to be sent or accessed through the new connection can be defined by the user.

This way it is possible to exchange data with other systems, such as ERP systems or manufacturing machines which leads to a high software integrity and thus, to an ideal dataflow within the company. For example, an ERP system could access the technical data which is needed for order processing automatically from COMAP.