Recent events got me thinking about this and perhaps it’s a bit more personal than what I typically blog about. I hope you’ll keep reading. Being in the hospital for the the birth of our first grandchild (hard to believe any of us are old enough for that), got me thinking. I’m curious to see if you also think this logic works…
Three things babies share with technology include: IoT, Asset/Location Hierarchies and planning; lots of detailed planning.
1.) Let’s start with the Internet of Things (IoT) idea… There are so many connected devices at the hospital now. The one that caught my attention the most was the sensor on the baby. It was integral to the hospital’s system and involved many alerts, notifications and other actions that were triggered based on movement. Some of the things that sensor did to help protect the baby and the new parents include:
– Doors automatically lock if a baby was too close to an exit. If the baby’s movement continued towards the outside and was even closer to the door (after ignoring other notifications); a security alarm would sound as the doors locked.
– Elevators would stop working if a baby was brought near them; to help prevent the precious asset from leaving the floor.
– A blue light notification flashed if a baby was out of their room moving around the hallways; again another security prevention.
– Movement was tracked real time. Anyone with access could see exactly where the baby was, even within the same room (I believe RFID <they weren’t sure>).
– The one thing the sensor did not track was falling or impact. Thankfully this rarely happens they said!
I couldn’t help but think about how tracking our critical business assets could be used in a similar manner. Other sensors are also used for heat, vibration, etc and can load valuable information into a system like IBM Maximo. Some of you might already have equipment sensors installed, and for those that don’t, the technology is so much cheaper now; it might be time to look into this again.
2.) Let’s talk about about Asset / Location Hierarchy situations… Considering yesterday was Father’s Day, I began to wonder how different hierarchy really is than what many of us just celebrated? I am super happy to say that four generations of my family were able to gather for a picture. Starting with my dad as the great grandpa, me as opa, my son as dad and his newborn son; all on the same couch; all in the same picture. Of course the extended family of grandma, wives, aunt, etc were there, but do we really want to go down the “sub assemblies / spare parts” path with them? Oh, that was probably bad enough just saying that; because we all know and realize how important the women in our lives are!!!
I think everyone has a hierarchy of assets and what belongs, connects, and depends on something else. CMMS systems should allow you to track the location and asset hierarchy as related to other locations and assets. Some systems track the level of detail better than others. In the case of Maximo, you can drill down as many levels as necessary to show how all the assets relate to one another. This way, when you schedule maintenance work to these assets, you can also estimate the impact on others before beginning down time. You can also define asset drill-downs and systems to help group the assets; kind of like our families; when we’re able to get together on those special days.
3.) Let’s consider scheduling work… Think about all the schedules, appointments, inspections, etc before a baby is born. The doctors keep a close eye on mother and child throughout the pregnancy and some of the tests they can run now are crazy. We could see the babies face and other bodily features with some of the 3d & 4d ultrasound procedures. Once the baby is born there are other tests and procedures that are followed and timely visits from the nurses to make sure everyone is safe and recovering. It’s a big ordeal for mom and child, so making sure everyone is healing and able to rest is key.
How close is this concept to what many of us do on a daily basis?
– Preventive Maintenance to manage the work before proactively instead of being reactive and scheduling work to be completed before it’s due.
– Job Plans and the management of steps to complete the work. I was not in the room, but as the anesthesiologist joked; “yup, I saw a YouTube video this morning on how to give an epidural…” Thankfully his training gave him all the necessary and repeatable steps!
– We also perform planned, emergency (hopefully not too many) and reactive work on and around our critical assets. I’m sure I freaked my parents out plenty growing up with some the accidents and things I got myself into.
Thanks for reading and I hope it brought up a few ideas for you, too. It was exciting to think about all the changes in medicine since my father was born to this moment as our grandchild was born. How cool and blessed it was to get a picture of all four of us boys together!
