Predictive maintenance in industries is a methodology of preventing machinery or product failure by analysing production data to identify patterns and predict the problems before it happens.
For every industrial asset, predictive maintenance needs to be carried out as it is a crucial role. There are certain factors that can explain why is it very important and how it actually helps both customers and producers at the same time.
Let’s look at some of them.
Reducing downtime
Identifying the potential problems, failures and tracking assets can help any business in the long run. Prediction on future downtime issues can maximize production capacity and ROI. Predictive maintenance can reduce the unplanned machine’s downtime by predicting when a machine requires check-ups. There are proven methods that helped industries increasing their revenue by 8 to 12 percent in the past.
Increased productivity
There will be lesser maintenance for good parts, quicker repair of faulty parts, and effective repair handling will improve operational efficiency. This can lead to rise in productivity and efficiencies of processing plants.
Lower maintenance cost
Predictive analysis techniques like big data analysis, using machine learning etc. has helped may industries and plants to a greater extent. It has been found that predictive maintenance can reduce maintenance cost by 25% to 35%.
Extend the equipment lifetime
PDM reduces the machine failure and provides secure operation in the background. Periodic examination of a machine’s efficiency, quality output over time, throughput, usage and also the shelf life needs to be analysed constantly. These can improve the duration of the equipment and thereby extend the lifetime of the equipments.
Reducing stock of spares
PDM will play a fundamental role in stocking spare parts. It gathers machine data and by using advanced analytics it allows manufacturers to reduce the repair time. Instead of purchasing all the spare parts as stock, it provides the industrial plants enough time to order the spares and replacement parts as and when required.
Constant alertness
Predictive maintenance can help send alerts regarding the system degeneration, parts change schedules, so that no eventuality happens in the plant leading to downtime. Automating these alerts and ensuring every aspect of maintenance is monitored there is constant alertness in the operations leading to maximum uptime with great productivity.
Improved safety
Industry maintenance should be part of the operations strategy to avoid unexpected accidents. Equipment failure can sometimes be catastrophic and can even cause death. Modern technology with alert systems and sensors can help with improved safety in plants.
Improved customer satisfaction
Consistent quality delivered through proper maintenance will result in better products and more satisfied customers. Timely maintenance tasks and automatic alerts for replacing parts can uplift company brand image to its customers and also provides competitive advantage in the market.
Predictive maintenance techniques will improve the overall operations and also better customer satisfaction for any manufacturing and process industries.