Festo introduces a new mobile maintenance app, ideal for tracking equipment in brewhouses and packaging lines

No matter their location or time of day, every maintenance team member with a smartphone, tablet or desktop computer can open maintenance plans and activity status through the new Festo Smartenance app. The app can be used with Festo and every other supplier’s equipment. It is fully vendor neutral.

If you don’t know: Festo is a leading supplier of pneumatic and electrical automation technology, offering industrial and process automation, components and software to a ton of industries. In the brewing sector, Festo builds and sells everything from automated valves for keg and vessel cleaning to systems that ensure 99.999 percent clean compressed air is being used in processing and packaging.

It’s new Smartenance app consists of two parts: a mobile maintenance calendar as an app for smartphone and tablets on the shop floor and a desktop web-browser interface for managing and documenting maintenance tasks in the office. Team coordination through real-time information makes maintenance management more efficient. Smartenance is simple, quick to install and self-explanatory. Download it through the Apple or Google App stores.

There are three levels of Smartenance and a free trial offer. Smartenance Basic enables the creation of maintenance tasks with an option for incorporating supporting images, PDFs and videos. Plant floor personnel gain mobile access to the maintenance calendar and background documentation. Through the app they can provide feedback, including images and an overview of current status.

Smartenance Advanced adds to Basic with a plant logbook, incident management — reporting, editing and closing incident tickets — and mobile knowledge search. Smartenance Premium builds on Basic and Advanced by adding event-driven maintenance tasks, a link to MES/ERP and provides additional document storage capacity. Premium also expands read/write capabilities.

“Smartenance gives small to midsized end users and original equipment manufacturers access to a mobile maintenance tool for ensuring the team has access to current information,” said Frank Latino, product manager of business unit electric automation at Festo. “Smartenance makes maintenance planning and implementing easier. As the business grows, the plant can add Smartenance capabilities.”