The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and latest advancements in edge computing and analytics as machine learning and artificial intelligence are constantly reshaping the predictive maintenance sector. After the glorious leap from reactive and corrective interventions to timely scheduled preventive plans, condition-monitoring data and predictive algorithms, the maintenance professionals are about to integrate another important achievement in their portfolio. Prescriptive maintenance is introduced as the “maintenance of the future” and it spans across cognitive analytics and IIoT tools to “prescribe” to the machine a certain behavior, which will lead to its maximized performance.
Predictive maintenance: definition and examples
Prescriptive maintenance is the expected final development of predictive maintenance routines and for now is considered for the last milestone in the evolution of maintenance.
Reactive maintenance Is Performed When Equipment Has Failed
Corrective (planned and/or unplanned) and/or reactive maintenance (only unplanned) are carried out just after a failure or a breakdown has been detected in order to restore a piece of equipment to a condition, in which it can perform its intended function. Sometimes corrective is used as well to describe planned maintenance interventions identified through a condition monitoring program. Modern organizations are seeking to minimize this kind of actions through the establishment of scheduled preventive asset check ups and predictive algorithms, aiming at predicting the occurrence of breakdowns. However, the knowledge and experience for rapid repair of equipment remain essential.
Preventive Maintenance Is Performed Regularly to Reduce the Probability of Failure
Contrary to reactive maintenance interventions, preventive plans include regular, timely scheduled, routine actions to eliminate any unplanned downtime and expenses for unanticipated asset failure. A reliable, next-gen CMMS is of essential importance for the accurate implementation of preventive maintenance, especially for companies with a lot of equipment where keeping records of past interventions and asset-related documents can be quite challenging. Mobility Work is a SaaS CMMS and the 1st social maintenance network, helping organizations to streamline their all-around maintenance program.
Mobility Work’s calendar feature allows you to schedule all your preventive and predictive maintenance tasks.
A typical preventive maintenance schedule includes cleaning, parts inspection and replacement, lubrication, adjustments, oil changes and many other actions based on plenty of data as manufacturer’s recommendations, intervention history and asset’s behavior. The goal of preventive check ups are to detect and immediately correct potential problems, before they have turned into a failure.
A mobile CMMS as Mobility Work allows you to immediately access any type of equipment data you would need while in the field as well as to easily collect intervention records, which are shareable with the whole team through the integrated news feed. These records can help maintenance technicians who haven’t personally performed the intervention to understand the action and to participate accordingly.
Considered to be a revolutionary approach a few years ago, preventive maintenance is well established today and the most common maintenance type. Its important benefits as prolonged equipment life, improved reliability and cost reductions have been massively recognized and appreciated.
More on CMMS and Preventive Maintenance from the Mobility Work Blog:
4 Main Benefits of Mobile CMMS
5 Corrective and Preventive Maintenance Levels You Need to Learn About
Condition-Based Equipment Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance
Predictive maintenance is based on real-time condition-monitoring data, delivered through sensors mounted on the pieces of equipment. The CBM data tracks the performance of certain indicators as temperature, vibration, cavitation, oil analyses and many more to predict an upcoming failure. This data alone is already worth it but its real power gets unveiled only when combined with intervention history, spare parts information and all other available asset records. Stored and analyzed in Mobility Work, all this information can be used for the creation of predictive algorithms.
Even though predictive maintenance is the most recent hype in the maintenance world and its results are visible, its implementation at small and mid-sized companies remain questionable due to additional costs. Nowadays, sensors don’t cost as much as they used to some years ago, but still the deployment of predictive maintenance routines require the employment of specialized workforce.
However, if an organization is turning towards digitalization and industry 4.0, there is no away around condition-based monitoring data and predictive maintenance. This approach is at the core of the Industrial Internet of Things to enhance physical objects in order to improve the collection and storage of data from their environment.
More on CMMS and Predictive Maintenance from the Mobility Work Blog:
Case Study: How to Improve Manufacturing Processes with Maintenance 4.0
Industry 4.0 CMMS: Future Maintenance Is Happening Now
IoT and CMMS: The New Competitive Advantage
Prescriptive Maintenance Based on AI and Cognitive Analytics Tools
The prescriptive maintenance approach brings maintenance routines to a next level by introducing a flexible maintenance strategy in which maintenance is only applied when and where it is needed. Prescriptive maintenance is going a step further than predictive actions and is not only showing when a failure is going to happen, but also why it is happening. The approach will take the available data and determine how the indicators and the potential outcomes should be changed in order to eliminate any possible risk for the ongoing production cycle.
Professionals are basically “advised” by AI algorithms, constantly adjusting the potential outcomes, what measures to undertake in order to control the behavior of an asset. The analyses will continue after the intervention and continue monitoring the machine. The possible benefits of prescriptive maintenance include cost reduction and support when critical decisions have been made.
For example, the maintenance team of a big manufacturing organization has prolonged the life of a conveyor belt to 1000 hours of use in winter and 800 hours in summer by anticipating the impact of the building’s temperature on the equipment.
A flexible, modern CMMS is definitely a must when establishing prescriptive maintenance. As for predictive maintenance, Mobility Work can streamline all your maintenance routines, store, organize and analyze your data.
All news related to ongoing interventions are available from Mobility Work mobile application’s newsfeed, available on iOS and Android.
As with every new technology, the initial deployment of prescriptive maintenance might be quite challenging. Hardware, software and training costs, organization’s size and its behavior towards latest technology could be some of the main obstacles. But even though still quite unexplored, prescriptive maintenance has a huge potential, ready to open the doors to the maintenance sector to enter the world of industry 5.0.
No matter where an organization is positioned on its maintenance path, Mobility Work is always there to provide the right solution. The next-gen CMMS can easily adapt to a company’s current maintenance program, help the team improve it and advance with it to the next level. Mobility Work is evolving with your organization, continuously updating its features based on your needs.
You are interested in maintenance management and would like to learn more about this subject in order to increase your productivity and save costs? Let’s plan a free online training with our team!
