Patent Publication Number: US-2006004637-A1

Title: Method for selling maintenance and process support services for papermaking machines

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention relates to methods of selling maintenance and process support services in general and for papermaking machines in particular.  
      In this application “papermaking machines” refers to any systems and devices relating to papermaking, such as systems and devices for production of pulp, paper, tissue, paperboard and cardboard, as well as finishing and converting systems and automation systems for papermaking.  
      Maintenance services of a papermaking machine include e.g. pro-active maintenance actions, such as failure and wear root cause measurements and analysis, predictive maintenance actions, such as condition monitoring and condition tests, preventive maintenance actions, such as scheduled maintenance, help desk services, remote troubleshooting using remote diagnostic systems, corrective maintenance actions used when remote operations are not adequate, and supporting maintenance services, such as documentation service and inspection of welded seams and machine frame wearing. The process support services of a papermaking machine include e.g. process tuning and optimization actions, which improve and optimize process efficiency and performance.  
      With today&#39;s papermaking machines the focus with maintenance actions is shifting from conventional methods in which upcoming failure situations are taken care of and broken parts are changed to predictive and proactive efforts. Predictive and proactive maintenance methods include active and real-time follow-up of the condition of the papermaking machine in the form of measuring various condition related parameters and analyzing these parameters to make predictions of the future maintenance needs. This has become possible only with modern diagnostics devices and intelligent measurement and analysis systems integrated with papermaking machines.  
      There has also raised needs for novel financing options for the customers buying papermaking machines. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/946,045 introduces a method for selling upgrade packages in papermaking in which method the customer pays the upgrade package as a sum of a fixed price and a cumulative price depending on the amount of produced paper.  
      In the above-described system the papermaking machine supplier does not have control of the production performance and thus cannot affect the term during which the customer pays the remaining cumulative price.  
      Also there is a need in the market to offer customers a wider variety of payment programs. Then the customer is allowed to decide whether he is willing to pay the whole purchase at once, in smaller amounts as defined in a payment program, or not to pay the capital costs at all but make a lease agreement.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The business method of this invention is to sell a maintenance and process support service or maintenance agreement in terms of a realized performance level or performance capacity of a papermaking machine or a papermaking machine unit As a consequence the customer pays for the realized production performance and capacity. E.g. for the reeling device the performance capacity can be measured in terms of broke, turnup reliability, tail threading performance, usability meters, operational reliability and of the total production performance. The invention is applicable to a whole papermaking line or to part of it or to a single unit, such as the reeling unit or a calender unit, of the papermaking line.  
      The service provider offering the maintenance and process support agreements according to the invention may be the supplier of the papermaking machines or machine units or it may be another party offering the service. Since the papermaking machines are rather complicated systems requiring in-depth knowledge of the service personnel, it is typical that the service provider is the papermaking machine supplier or a closely related unit of the papermaking machine supplier.  
      It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of marketing papermaking machines and papermaking machine services, which allows the machine supplier to more cost-effectively market its products.  
      It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for the supplier to shift the focus from devices to value and services wherein the customer pays more for the actual production and only at the time when it actually becomes productive.  
      It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for maintaining an agreed performance level of papermaking machines.  
      Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description.  
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  illustrates the method and system of collecting performance related information of a papermaking machine.  
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      The present invention makes it possible for the paper mills to achieve a guaranteed production performance level of the papermaking machine for most of the production time and minimizing the down-time in a case of a failure when making a maintenance and process support service agreement according to the invention. The price of the maintenance and process support service agreement is expressed in terms of a total fee F T  which is a sum of a basic fee F B  and a variable fee F V . When making the agreement according to the invention the service provider and the customer agree on the desired performance level being maintained during the normal operation of the papermaking machine or the papermaking machine unit. Also the payment period is agreed upon. The agreed payment period may be one month or one year or any other suitable charging period.  
      The customer pays the basic fee F B  every payment period and the amount of the basic fee stays constant. The variable fee F V  depends on the realized performance is level. Its sign is negative if the agreed performance level has not been met and in this case the customer actually pays less for the maintenance service agreement. If the agreed performance level has been met the sign of the variable price P V  is positive and the customer pays more. This way the customer achieves an agreed performance level for most of the operation time or pays less for those periods during which the agreed performance level has not been met. Also the customer pays more for those periods during which the performance level has been above the agreed performance level and the production output has been higher than expected. The papermaking machine supplier or the service provider can make more profit with the service agreement when it has succeeded in maintaining the agreed performance level. The absolute value of the variable fee F V  depends on how much or for how long the realized performance level has stayed above or below the agreed performance level.  
      From the service provider&#39;s point of view, the achieved and exceeded performance level produces a bonus price, i.e. extra profit for the service provider. When the agreed performance level has not been met the service provider makes less profit as a form of lower maintenance agreement price. This encourages the service provider to make efforts to maintain the agreed performance level.  
      The terms of defining the parameters determining the performance level may be changed if the running parameters of the papermaking machine or the papermaking machine unit have been changed.  
      According to an embodiment of the invention, a papermaking machine or a papermaking machine unit and a maintenance and process support service agreement is sold to the customer at a price, which depends on one hand on the composition of the delivered system and on the other hand on the payment terms of the maintenance and process support service agreement. If the price of the capital goods is higher, the maintenance and process support service agreement payments may be agreed on at a lower level than usual. If the capital goods are sold at a lower price than usual, the payment terms of the maintenance and process support service agreement maybe set to a higher level.  
      The use of the method according to the invention is applicable in papermaking machines which are equipped with a measurement system for collecting performance related information of the papermaking machine and a novel maintenance system, which allows the service provider to make immediate maintenance operations in a failure situation or perform proactive maintenance acts in response to predicted failures. This way it is possible for the service provider to maintain the agreed performance level.  
      The measurement system for collecting performance related information comprises means for collecting data from the papermaking machine, means for processing data and means for showing data to the users and maintenance personnel of the papermaking machine. Preferably the system also comprises a remote or local information system for processing automated maintenance acts and/or for performing remote automatic corrective acts in the failure situation.  
      The maintenance service agreement according to the invention includes delivering reports to the customer on the realized performance level, statistical information and any other performance and maintenance related information.  
      The customer is usually obliged to take care of the daily maintenance and cleaning tasks, such as cleaning paper pieces away, washing, making visual oil leakage inspections, and any other normal machine operation observations as well as changing consumables such as fabrics and doctor blades, seals and nozzles. Spare parts and consumables may be charged separately if the customer has not made a spare part delivery agreement with the supplier.  
      The typical diagnostic measurements measured for determination of the performance and condition level of the reel unit (used here as an example) of the papermaking machine are:  
      Stress measurement and analysis of the frames  
      Bearing condition monitoring  
      Roll and reel spool monitoring  
      Linear guide ways monitoring  
      Monitoring mechanical drives and couplings  
      Reeling belt condition measurement  
      Movement time monitoring and friction measurement  
      Hydraulic oil temperature and hydraulic valve condition measurement  
      Hydraulic cylinder condition measurement  
      Hydraulic pressure measurements of position and force controls  
      Hydraulic pump monitoring  
      Turn-up equipment pressure monitoring  
      Turn-up success  
      Tail threading time  
      Availability  
      Break times  
      Waste  
      Automatic system diagnostics indications  
      Sensors, actuators, I/O-cards and other HW diagnostics  
      Sensor 0-point and calibration monitoring  
      Electric drives and motor condition  
      Diagnostic system in the performance level monitoring system comprises equipment for necessary measurements, data collection, analysis, and data communications.  FIG. 1  illustrates the data and information flow in the measurement system. The data source layer comprises means for acquiring the measurement data for the performance level determination. The hardware of the measurement devices may comprise sensors, PC&#39;s, dataloggers, measurement cards, DCS&#39;s (Distributed Control System), PLC&#39;s (Programmable Logic Controller), and wiring, as well as external information systems, such as MES (Manufacturing Execution System), process and information systems and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Some signals may be taken from the automation system of the papermaking machine through straight sensor I/O&#39;s with hard wiring, through fieldbus interfaces, through local area network based interfaces or through software based interface.  
      The data collection and preprocessing layer comprises means for processing the collected data. This layer performs e.g. storing the raw data, the data compression, pre-processing, and automatic procedures, such as automatic alarms. These processes turn the collected data into useful information, which is transmitted to the next layer, i.e. the data presentation layer. The data presentation layer takes care of presenting the collected and pre-processed data in a useful and illustrative form. The data presentation layer comprises means for presenting trends, profiles, spectra, raw data, key figures and alarms to the operators, maintenance personnel and other parties using the system. The data presentation layer may also comprise means for generating spare part and service orders as well as applicable software solutions and programs.  
      The applicable data is taken to the maintenance and process support layer, which represents any necessary maintenance and process support operations, such as automatic remote acts, instructions for repair to be delivered to the maintenance personnel as well as proactive maintenance acts and on-site actions. Information about the maintenance and process support actions are taken to the performance level layer as well as the information from the data presentation layer. Now the current performance level can be determined using data from the previous layers. The charging department or other party responsible for the actual charging uses the performance level information to generate bills for the customer.  
      According to the invention the customer pays a fixed price per time unit or payment period, which is typically one month or one year. The maintenance and process support service agreements may be made for one year at a time or for a longer time. Typically they are long-term agreements since this way the most benefit is made with the agreement. The agreement comprises the agreed performance level determined with the performance measures according to the invention.  
      Using the method according to the invention, the supplier can reach higher life cycle profitability through better-targeted maintenance and spare part services, process expertise and reliability optimizations.  
      It should be noted that an invoice may be generated following the agreed upon period of time which would invoice the customer for a total fee which is the sum of the basic fee and the variable fee, the variable fee being adjusted based on a function of the realized performance level and the agreed performance level. Moreover, a price list for the purchase price and the maintenance contract of the papermaking machine may be developed for the papermaking machine, such that the purchase price is lower when the basic fee and the variable fee are higher.  
      In the following the patent claims will be given and various details of the invention may show variation within the scope of the inventive idea defined in the patent claims and differ from the details disclosed above for the sake of example only.