Andrew Johnston: Architecture and Consultancy Services

Case Study - Smart Asset Management for IBM / National Grid Plc (2009 – 2012, 2014)

Summary

Consolidation and analysis of multiple sources of management data for National Grid’s transmission assets

Key Outcomes

Overall strategy for “Strategic Asset Management”. Underlying infrastructure for collecting detailed asset information from source. Optimised, innovative asset maintenance and replacement planning

Key Challenges

Designing a secure but flexible network architecture. Articulating a vision providing an appropriate balance between strategic control, tactical innovation and long term flexibility and security.

Key Technologies

RuggedCom RX-series industrially hardened cyber security appliances. JCAPS integration

 

The National Grid “Strategic Asset Management” initiative aims to create an environment in which traditional asset data can be combined with data collected directly from assets in near real time, subject to novel analyses and presented through graphical composite applications to enable a move to condition, risk and criticality-based asset maintenance and replacement planning. As such it will form a major plank of Transmission’s strategy to meet their obligations through to 2020.

The initial stage delivered an enabling communications and security layer, allowing flexible but secure access to network enabled assets directly from appropriate business systems. I led the procurement of this solution from a technical standpoint, preparing the majority of procurement materials and driving much of the evaluation process.

In parallel I helped the business to develop their overall vision for the solution, and created a data management and application architecture which will progressively exploit the new infrastructure capabilities.

I have now been re-engaged in this programme to help deliver the required data to an IBM Cloud Analytics solution, and to establish how the new solution can integrate with the mobile solutions for the Transmission workforce.

See more: