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La Silla/Paranal Observatory - Real time information with IBM Maximo Asset Management
Paranal, June 22, 2009. With the intent of implementing a strategy which would permit an adequate administration of the physical assets of the most powerful optic observation, ESO (European Southern Observatory) considered from the initial steps of the project the implementation of a CMMS. After having evaluated various alternatives, ESO selected in the year 2000 the IBM Maximo Asset Management as the tool for the administration of physical assets given that it faithfully adapted to its necessities. Up until now, the results have been most favorable for this international organization.
With nearly four decades of existence, ESO, an international organization comprised of 14 European countries and created for the astronomical research in the southern hemisphere is avant-garde in the astrophysical studies worldwide.
The high investment in addition to a large global demand which exists for observations to be carried out at the Paranal Observatory impose a high demand on the staff in charge of operating and maintaining the installations.
The usage of a tool such as Maximo has been one of the pillars in the maintenance administration of the observatory.
Currently, the information collected from the activities conducted on site is managed in such a way that it is practically available as “real time” for the analysis and report generation which permits decision making with a high degree of precision in a very dynamic environment.
According to Nelson Montano, Head of the Observatory La Silla - Paranal’s Maintenance, IBM Maximo has given successful results since its implementation; “Thanks to this technology, we have today an exact vision of what is happening on site. We manage the information as if it were available on a “real time” basis, that is to say, if I request a report from the planning team, I will receive from them a complete report of what is happening. Thanks to this, decisions taken are very accurate” he confirms.
“Also”, he adds, “with this tool we have been able to administer our stock of parts with high reliability. Maximo is also used to obtain global and detailed key performance indicators not only for our teams but as well as for our contractors which support our maintenance tasks. It is worth mentioning as well that this implementation has allowed the technicians in the maintenance area to be more motivated. They feel as if they are contributing to the global management of the department and the organization and this is very important”, explains Montano.
As for the challenges, the expert points out that “we have just finished developing a tool which prioritizes the maintenance tasks however the database where this is created presents certain weaknesses in terms of capacity for information handling and because of this, our idea is to conduct functionality tests of this solution and once that we are convinced that it is running correctly, we will implement it in Maximo with the aim of strengthening them”.
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