Take HORIZON Wherever You Go with the Mobile App

I am thrilled to unveil the newest installment of our award-winning fluid analysis software – the HORIZON® mobile app. After months of hard work and behind-the-scenes configuration, the HORIZON app and web versions sync in real-time, regardless of whether you’re on a smartphone, tablet or computer.

The feature most customers are looking forward to is adjustable alerts for the app. The app will send a “push” notification to your phone when a sample arrives, and, yes, you can adjust the alerts based on fluid type and overall severity. Since our labs process samples around the clock, I recommend using the “Do Not Disturb” feature during off hours.   

For now, the app is only available for Apple devices running iOS 8 or higher. We anticipate the release of the app for Android devices in 2016. In the meantime, anyone can still access HORIZON on a standard mobile web browser.

The next feature we are developing is submitting sample information via the mobile app. We improved the web-based sample submission process earlier this year, and this app will be able to perform those same tasks this fall. You will be able to stand next to the equipment and enter fluid time, mileage and other information directly into HORIZON, which will completely eliminate handwritten paperwork and a lot of errors along with it.

Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you. 

Published June 30, 2016

Online Sample Submission: Change Is Good

Submitting sample information through HORIZON® is quick, easy and, best of all, reduces errors. While this option has been available, we’ve redesigned the feature to be better than ever.

But why does this matter to you today? Several reasons.

The redesign also gave us the opportunity to prepare HORIZON for future updates. The HORIZON mobile app is coming out Summer 2015, and a lot of behind-the-scenes work was needed to set the foundation for the mobile app. You will be able to view and filter sample reports when the app is first released, and soon after you’ll be able to submit sample information from your mobile device, too.

After selecting the components that were sampled, now the information and fluid type is displayed right next to the sample fields. The system will make sure the barcode you enter is valid to use on the component type. This should reduce the number of coolants submitted as oils and vice versa.

You also can collapse the fields for each component or even remove components from the screen. Collapsing large lists of components and expanding the fields only when needed greatly reduces the amount of scrolling required. Removing individual components was a popular request because if the wrong component was selected in the old sample submission process, users had to move back a screen, unselect the component and re-enter all of the sample data.

Just after the new sample submission process launched, we received a call from a customer with immediate feedback. He had pulled many samples and wanted to save time by submitting the sample information online. The customer processed half of them in about five hours before work ended. The next morning, he noticed the new sample submission feature had deployed. The customer picked up where he left off with the samples, and to his surprise, the last half of the samples only took him two hours! He was very impressed by the improvements and appreciated the additional time we saved him.

For instructions on using the new sample submission process, download the written instructions or watch the video.

Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you. 

Published June 9, 2015

Condition-Based Maintenance


Preventative maintenance only occurs when a set intervals of time or usage passes. This leaves equipment problems unaddressed for long periods, which leads to unexpected failures.

True condition-based maintenance programs perform equipment maintenance only when condition-monitoring technologies provide sufficient evidence that the condition of the fluid and/or the equipment merits action. Then maintenance can be scheduled to minimize any disruption to the equipment’s uptime, but it is necessary for technology to prove there is a problem and establish a clear direction for correcting it.

EXAMPLE 1: Diesel engine re-builds are typically done at around 750,000 miles with oil drain intervals around 10,000 miles. Unexpected issues can reduce that interval, including fuel scheduling issues (bad injectors, excessive soot) or coolant contamination (leaks in the engine or the EGR cooler). This creates wear and leads to premature failure. Normal scheduled maintenance every 25,000 miles will spot these issues, but this leads to unscheduled downtime as the unit waits for parts. In the worst-case scenario, a problem develops and causes a failure before the next scheduled maintenance, causing collateral damage to other components.

EXAMPLE 2: A typical diesel engine can use a condition-based maintenance strategy and rely on oil analysis trends to optimize drain intervals. When wear, contamination and/or fluid degradation approaches levels that could result in engine damage, the data analysis will recommend to change the oil, resample to verify the result or perform additional diagnostics. This allows parts to be staged for the unit so there is no delay when maintenance is performed. All of this increases the unit’s uptime and can even delay a rebuild.

Benefits of Condition-Based Maintenance

  • Operating costs are significantly reduced.
  • Extending maintenance and oil drain intervals reduces wrench time and oil consumption.
  • Performing the appropriate maintenance on the appropriate unit at the appropriate time increases component life and improves overall fleet management.
  • Trending data provides early knowledge of possible failures, allows for scheduled maintenance and drastically reduces unscheduled downtime. This requires changing from a preventive maintenance strategy to a predictive maintenance strategy that identifies and addresses small problems before they develop into catastrophic failures.
  • Regularly reviewing trends of condition monitoring results provides more accurate root-cause analysis of preventable failures.

Condition-Based-Maintenance-TimelineNeed a plan to move your program from interval-based to condition-based maintenance today?
Take a look at our simple 8-week timeline.

Learn more about getting an oil analysis program started with POLARIS Laboratories®.

 

Proven Impact. Proven Uptime. Proven Savings.
Let us prove it to you. 

Published June 9, 2015