Context-related use of GIS relations in life cycle management

Background to the research project 

The complexity of process and plant technologies
Technical plants are usually characterized by a large spatial extent with a high number of involved organizational units as well as the existence of heterogeneous plant components (among other things with regard to age and manufacturer). In addition, large amounts of data are generated during operation.

Plant operations: Utilization of the entire knowledge base
Many tasks in process plants have a high time, personnel and financial cost, such as the need to set up a scaffold at great expense for the maintenance of a component. For an efficient implementation, it makes sense to consider the entire knowledge base of plant operation, which is formed by the data generated during the life cycle of process plants. In addition to a large amount of data that is generated during the operational process (online data), data that is based on existing documentation, some of which is generated externally (offline data), is also relevant.

Efficiency in planning and design
Extremely shortened development times and at the same time the demand for a higher degree of innovation require great efficiency in planning and design. This represents one of the decisive key factors for the future success of a company. Holistic consideration of data generated during the life cycle of process plants can result in the following utilization benefits in plant operation:

▪ Improved coordination of the various projects,
▪ Reduction of effort and costs of the projects,
▪ Increase in plant safety,
▪ Reduction of malfunctions,
▪ Reduction of errors and rework,
▪ improvement of the decision-making basis and
▪ long-term storage of knowledge.

Research and development goals

Within the scope of the project, methods of knowledge management are to be transferred to the operation of technical plants and the KMDL (Knowledge Modeling an Description Language) is to be extended. The result forms the basis for the extension of the functional spectrum of the cooperation partner.