Tele-maintenance “intelligent” systems for technical plants result management

The management of technical plant for productivity and safety is generally a complex activity, particularly when many plants distributed in the territory are considered (i.e. the more and more frequent case of outsourced plants maintenance by specialized companies), granted quality and cost results are required (i.e. the case of some rather innovative contract solutions) and the technology involved is heterogeneous and innovative (i.e. electro-mechanical plants). In order to efficiently achieve the above aims an “intelligent” maintenance–management system for the distant monitoring and controlling by a remote control center has been developed. The so-called GrAMS (granted availability management system) system is conceived to give to organizations involved in technical–industrial plants management the possibility to tend to a “well-known availability” and “zero-failures” management. In particular, this study deals with the diagnostic aspects and safety level of technical plants (such as elevators, thermo-technical plants, etc.), and with the involvement of ad hoc designed software analysis tools based on neural networks and reliability indicators. Part of the research dealing with the tele-maintenance intelligent system has been financed by the Italian High Institute for Safety (ISPESL) and led to the development of a pre-industrial prototype whose realization and testing is here described.