Fully Upgradeable and Field Replaceable Touch Screen Displays and Industrial PCs from AIS Deliver Maximum Uptime and Productivity while Minimizing Total Cost of Ownership

IRVINE, CALIF. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — May 19, 2014 — American Industrial Systems, Inc. (AIS), an open platform, PC-based Human Machine Interface (HMI), Industrial PC (IPC) units and turnkey engineering and manufacturing solutions provider, announces their “Design for Smart Manufacturability Services” (DMS) for new modularized HMI systems that are easily serviced and replaced by customers in the field while maintaining high productivity with the least amount of downtime and disruptions to their operations. The new HMI touch panel design from AIS maintains the same technical powerful features, capabilities and performance of their traditional panel mount-type HMI PC, but adopts a modularized design which meets the needs and requirements of an open, smart manufacturing technology platform. Furthermore, a highly modularized design offers AIS’s customers many other worthwhile benefits, such as higher product availability, maximum uptime and a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for the lifecycle of the AIS HMI control and monitoring solution.

Operator Interface Panels, Touch Screen HMI Panels, Modularized HMI Panel PCs (Photo: Business Wire)

New Flexible and Modularized HMI Designs from AIS Makes Servicing Easier & More Cost Effective and Improves Operational Efficiency

Companies are always searching for new ways to achieve maximum productivity and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Typically, this is achieved by utilizing the most advanced control and monitoring solutions and technologies available that will increase performance, throughput and the speed of their machinery or process. Obviously, the faster and more efficient the production line, the higher the output and return on investment. However, the longer an HMI system can stay in production without failures, problems or in need of service, the more productive a plant’s operation can be – keeping their machinery and production lines working at full capacity and operational efficiency.

In addition, to their high performance, broad feature set and advanced visualization capabilities, the new open platform, PC-based HMIs from AIS are also modular, easily replaceable and upgradable. The flexibility of an AIS modular HMI system will help customers maintain their production goals and targets. Thanks to the AIS in-house Design for Manufacturability team, products are designed and engineered properly at the onset to ensure long life, high reliability and availability. AIS HMI Display and IPC units are designated as either Field Replaceable Units (FRUs) or Customer Replaceable Units (CRUs) that can be quickly and easily upgraded or repaired.

AIS Design for Manufacturability Services for Modular HMIs Help Substantially Reduce Future Field Services and Maintenance Costs for Customers

AIS’s new modular, open technology PC-based HMI designs minimize field service and replacement costs for customers maintaining control and monitoring systems. Estimated in thousands of dollars or more for repair expenses, the cost for equipment downtime and maintenance coupled with service technicians required to perform the work can be an expensive burden for plants. In remote areas such as off shore production platforms and drilling rigs in the Oil & Gas industry, the expense can be even greater.

With open and modular HMI systems from AIS, only the box PC unit needs to be replaced, without having to ship an entire new HMI system to the facility. Replacement is fast and easy and improves Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for OEMs/ODMs and end-users.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) Performance is Greatly Enhanced with Few Parts and Spares Required for AIS’s Flexible and Open Platform HMI Designs

In addition to the cost of field technicians, repair and service personnel, having to maintain a spare parts inventory sufficient enough to replace and service HMI control and monitoring systems in the field, adversely affects supply chain performance for users who utilize proprietary or fixed-type HMI systems. A large parts inventory not only consumes large amounts of valuable capital, but adds complexity to the supply chain dynamic as well, making high availability difficult and too costly for users. With a modular and flexible system design, AIS’s PC-based panel mount HMIs can be upgraded or replaced with a common box PC component, so customers will need fewer spare parts inventory and therefore greatly reduce inventory redundancies and costs.

AIS’s New HMIs are Flexible Industrial PC Solutions that Are Built-to-Order and Field-Replaceable

The modularized HMI Touch panel PC increases sustainability in terms of resource product lifecycle management and supply chain performance. It allows flexible OEM/ODM manufacturing, system integration, and better asset management for industrial control system (ICS), distributed control system (DCS), programmable logic controller (PLC), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and manufacturing execution system (MES) solutions.

AIS’s newest family of industrial PCs feature a highly modular design and provide a complete range of HMI solutions that allow touchscreen display and Box PC built to specific customer needs and requirements. AIS’s modularized HMI panel PCs are configured to suit a wide variety of applications including: Chemical Manufacturing, Water & Waste Water Treatment, Pharmaceutical, Energy, Food, Oil & Gas, Automotive, and others.