Very few organizations specializing in manufacturing processes have developed a perfect maintenance approach. Despite the lack of imperfection, maintenance plays a pivotal role on the likelihood of equipment standing the tests of time and remaining at peak performance. Organizations are left with some choices in regards to how they go about this, but most often it comes in the form of preventive or predictive maintenance.
Beginning with the method of maintenance that has been most common for years, preventive maintenance; with this strategy, each piece of equipment in an organization’s fleet receives regularly scheduled maintenance throughout the year. The intervals at which machinery receives maintenance is dependent on the status of the equipment. It’s no surprise that older pieces of equipment will require additional maintenance throughout the year than newer pieces of equipment. The same can be said for pieces of equipment that run more on average than the rest of a fleet. Ultimately, despite the next strategy differing, the goal of these strategies is always to extend the duration of effectiveness for equipment.
Building off of this, the alternative strategy detailed in this post is known as predicative maintenance. While it’s true that organizations should prioritize limiting equipment failure, it can be challenging to do so without the right information. Predictive maintenance provides this information through integration with an organization’s equipment. As the machine performs, sophisticated systems collect performance data that can be used to assess equipment health and expected failure. Effective systems, but with anything that provides such quality, the price tag can be difficult to accept.
Despite costs limiting organizations, implementation has not slowed down a bit. A simplified connection to the technologies connected to the Internet of Things also improves the capabilities of these systems. Meaning additional possibilities for understanding these machines are available as a result of these systems. This is accomplished through in-depth reporting and analysis of performance data. With this data, the likelihood of accurately predicting equipment failure and what maintenance is required to avoid failure becomes much higher.
As it stands today, despite the immense value these systems provide, some businesses will continue to struggle. Maintenance is not a solution to a businesses’ internal problems. Any issues existing prior to implementing these systems will still exist. It’s important to understand that these systems are not a cure-all, in fact they require grand capital investments, in addition to highly tailored technology platforms that must be integrated into a business. This will also require a stark retraining of employees, which is bound to have some challenges as well. While maintenance can improve the health of equipment, it is not guaranteed to help the health of an organization.
For as important as maintenance is to these manufacturing operations, it sure is difficult to select the right approach for any business. To find more information on the subject, take a moment to check out the infographic shared alongside this post. Courtesy of Industrial Service Solutions.