Sulzer
Data Intensive Technical Web Application
Sulzer Pumps is a leading provider of products and services in the centrifugal pumping
industry.
Download Case Study
Client Profile
Sulzer Pumps is a leading provider of products and services in the centrifugal pumping
industry. With a wide portfolio of products and an extensive service offering, including
training, preventive maintenance, spare parts, replacement pumps, retrofits, field
services and repairs, they are ideally placed to support their wide network of customers
and business partners.
Serving companies across many sectors including Oil, Gas and Hydrocarbon Processing,
Pulp and Paper Mills, Power Generation Plants, Water Treatment and Distribution,
Food, Metals and Fertilizer, and with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities
located on all continents and sales offices, service centres and representatives
in more than 150 countries, Sulzer truly are a global organisation.
The Problem
The core focus for Sulzer is on building bespoke pumps for the variety of industries
they serve. Each pump is individually designed and constructed in a variety of sites
across the world. The geographical distance, differing time zones and the diversity
of local measurements in use was making it difficult to share the technical pump
data between the engineers in the different countries.
In addition to the data management issues, versioning needed to be tightly controlled
in order to meet the precise auditing procedures that were vital to ensuring Sulzer’s
accreditation was achieved and maintained.
The existing set up meant that Sulzer had to maintain and track the engineering
data across many different systems, including ad-hoc spreadsheets. This was proving
both time consuming and open to human error.
The Solution
BlackLight Software worked with Sulzer pumps to understand and define the exact
requirements in order to build a bespoke software system that would address all
of the data management issues and auditing requirements across all of their sites.
The solution that BlackLight delivered, named OED, uses Microsoft SQL Server 2008
and .Net 3.5 Web forms to provide 88 distinct engineering sheets. These sheets cover
all the technical information that needs to be shared between the dispersed engineering
teams, with complex business logic built into the application to ensure the correct
unit of measurement is used and that localised display and data versioning is encapsulated
through the C# business components.
Access to the OED system is controlled via Active Directory, which allows access
to be assigned dependent on the Users role and country, and the level of access
granted to that individual. ‘Work in progress’ versions of the technical data can
also be created and shared within the User’s own team. Once the process is complete
and the data verified, the version is released into the general User population.
Furthermore, in order to maintain versioning control, offline caching into Microsoft
Excel allows Users to edit ‘locked out’ OED sheets offline and re-sync their changes
when back in the office.
The entire OED system is hosted in one location, with Users across the 150 countries
accessing the application via Web Pages. This approach meant Sulzer did not have
to incur the expensive of a global scale on-site role out.
The Benefits
The OED application has allowed Sulzer Pumps to standardise the storage and transfer
of data throughout the pump design and build process. This has the direct benefit
of ensuring the technical data is correct wherever in the world it is accessed and
that the information is available at all times, regardless of the time zone the
engineer is operating in.
Data replication has also been reduced, consequently the engineering team are more
productive and Sulzer can operate with greater efficiency. On top of this, full
auditing of the process is now easy and seamless, helping the company achieve the
required accreditation.
Sulzer Pumps have also recognised incremental benefits through OED’s integration
with the companies ERP systems, such as the ability to improve the planning process,
resulting in the more efficient use of resources.