Software System for Mobile Communication, Operating and Monitoring of Automated Systems

Stand # PC- 20

• EXTEND7000 is world’s first fully functional integrated mobile SCADA and maintenance system 

• Reduces downtime of plant equipment by reducing engineer’s ‘time to attend’ 

• – < 6 seconds between fault occurring and alarm raised on engineer’s mobile device 

• Mobile tool to assist with fault diagnoses and fixes, contributing to improved service KPIs 

• Bringing ‘enterprise mobility’ to industrial maintenance systems 

• Delivers ROI and significant cost reduction within 9 months

SCHAD, the award-winning mobile SCADA software company, will be exhibiting EXTEND7000, the world’s first fully functional mobile SCADA application from stand PC20 at Plant and Asset Management 2012.

EXTEND7000 is an award-winning mobile SCADA system which allows engineers supporting automated systems within distribution centres, airports, manufacturing plants, utilities companies and any other automated environments controlled by PLCs (programmable logic computers), to monitor, control and maintain multiple systems remotely, using any mobile device from any location. EXTEND7000 promises rapid return on investment by targeting system downtime through rules-based distribution of alarm and escalation notifications, which are sent directly to an available engineer or technician with the right skills working in the vicinity of the problem.

Mobile gateway to eliminate time consuming manual intervention

Traditional SCADA systems rely on manual approaches to fixing faults with the intervention of a Control Room Supervisor and these are time consuming and prone to miscommunication and risk. Using EXTEND7000, manual intervention is avoided because alerts are issued immediately, with the immediate generation of a workflow to inform team colleagues of all issues as they arise and subsequent progress. Even on the largest industrial installations, it takes less than 6 seconds from a fault initially being detected to an alert arriving on an available engineer’s mobile device and at the same time, informing the rest of the team.

EXTEND7000 also acts as a mobile gateway with the ability to read and write to PLC control parameters, download service documentation, even to view video footage of a fault recorded with CCTV. In the event that more specialist skills are required to diagnose a fault, it is possible to delegate a notification to another better-equipped engineer. If that individual is working remotely, they can use the monitor and control tools on their mobile device to inspect the status of plant equipment, make adjustments or provide support to the other engineer present.

$4.3m VC funding to support global business expansion

In January of 2011, SCHAD received $4.3million funding from M8, a venture capital firm specialising in mobile technology investments. Since that time, the company has moved to larger headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, where its R&D and technical teams will continue to be based. SCHAD’s new commercial operation, headed by James Hannay from London, began in August 2011 and marks the start of the company’s international business expansion plans, which will focus on growing the business across Europe, Middle East and Africa, the US and Asia.

Significant new customer acquisition across all sectors

During 2011, SCHAD experienced significant success in winning a variety of new customers for EXTEND7000, in a diverse range of market sectors. New customers include industrial piping manufacturer Europipe, e-tailer Baur and Sachsenmilch, part of the Muller group of dairy food manufacturers.

Schad has also been engaged in a number of major new projects including the re-development of Berlin’s new Brandenburg International Airport, due to open in 2012.  Here, EXTEND7000 will be deployed to monitor and control baggage handling equipment, energy supply, access control, apron lighting and a number of other automated systems controlling key processes at what will be one of Europe’s most advanced airports.

“Vanderlande sees EXTEND7000 as a vital tool for us to ensure we meet our KPIs as Munich Airport’s outsourced provider,” says Thomas Gebbert, Service Account Manager at Vanderlande. “We can control the many different operations associated with baggage handling using a single device, staff no longer have to make unnecessary journeys and the whole team is better informed at all times, which means we can be so much more efficient.” 

“We are at the tip of the iceberg as the use of mobile applications within business starts to really take hold, thanks to the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets which already run many aspects of our lives,” says Christian Schad, founder and CEO of SCHAD GmbH. “It is a natural extension to apply a new layer of enterprise mobility to help companies using automation systems gain better control and reduce the costs of system downtime – and as more companies introduce automation, in the distribution centre, production facility or for transportation services, the issue of downtime reduction will be increasingly important.” 

“The launch of EXTEND7000 offers organisations a huge opportunity to introduce mobility to a completely new area of the workforce – namely the highly skilled maintenance engineers responsible for managing automated systems monitored by SCADA and controlled by PLC technology. Many companies already have a wireless infrastructure so it’s a logical transition to put this to greater use with mobile applications to reduce downtime,” says James Hannay, SVP of Sales and Marketing at SCHAD.

SCHAD intends to offer SCADA solutions based on EXTEND7000 by recruiting both channel and OEM partners. The company is currently finalising a series of strategic OEM partnerships with automation specialists and relationships with reseller integrators to build a wider global presence.  SCHAD will invest in its infrastructure locally to support the rapid growth expected from its channel partners.  

Product background – EXTEND7000 SCADA

EXTEND7000 is a mobile SCADA system and software application that targets reduction in plant equipment unplanned downtime by reducing the engineer’s ‘time to attend’ and then serving as a mobile tool to assist with fault diagnosis. The system can monitor a wide range of data sources and can connect to multiple SCADA systems, databases and programmable logic controllers (PLC’s) running automated machinery in distribution centres, airports, production lines and utilities companies.  It extends monitoring and controlling onto a mobile device such as Blackberry, iPhone, tablet PC’s, Android and any windows mobile terminal. A highly scalable solution, it can monitor many 100,000s of individual system parameters (tags) maintained in a database.

Engineers using EXTEND7000 are kept fully up to date with system performance and have the ability to remotely control the operation, for instance by shutting down faulty pumps or starting additional back up systems. The benefits of the system are that it provides a powerful mobile monitoring and control system to reduce down time, improve productivity, ensure more efficient use of the work force, reduce wastage, improve quality of service and provide more transparent management information, which enables better decision making.

EXTEND7000 Maintenance

EXTEND7000 can also be used for distributing and executing maintenance work orders and for transferring and displaying maintenance activities. Maintenance staff can also report actual time spent on a task via their mobile device and connect to other back-end systems such as IBM Maximo and SAP PM maintenance systems for example to obtain historical system information. This gives field engineers access to critical information in order to reduce the time spent repairing faults and maintaining automated systems – remotely from anywhere within the facility or the outside world.

This cuts maintenance time and the amount of administrative work required because an engineer can review scheduled maintenance whilst responding to a SCADA alert and potentially resolve two tasks in a single visit. Therefore the number of repeat visits can be reduced, saving time on the job and resource costs.

SCHAD is working with customers and automation partners from a diverse range of market sectors, to allow their automated systems to be monitored, controlled and maintained using mobile devices from anywhere inside or outside the facility, using an existing Wi-Fi or GPRS network.

About SCHAD

SCHAD was founded in 2007 by Christian Schad, with the aim of developing a global standard for the mobile operation, control and maintenance of automated systems using an ordinary mobile device. The company has won a number of industry awards including a 2010 Vodafone Application Award for best machine to machine solution; and a BlackBerry Innovation Award in 2009 and 2010 for transforming enterprise business performance.  SCHAD was also a RIM Finalist in the 2008 Wireless Leadership Awards.

Currently, typical companies using EXTEND7000 from SCHAD include Brillux (paint manufacturer), LSG Sky Chefs (airline catering services), BASF (chemicals manufacturer), Lugato (building products manufacturer), Frosta (frozen food manufacturer), Budni (personal products retailer), Baur (e-tailer) plus Berlin, Munich and Köln Airports. For further information please review the EXTEND7000 FAQ and case studies available online at www.schad-automation.com.