Technological Advancements Responsible For Improving Maintenance

As if owning and operating a business weren’t enough, owners and managers are tasked with identifying ways in which they can perfect their maintenance approaches. Is it best to remain with the tried and true regular preventive maintenance? Or invest into the new systems such as predictive maintenance for the sake of limiting the expended resources? Prior to making any decisions, these owners and managers must first understand the differences between these strategies.

While it’s important to understand the distinction between these two maintenance philosophies, more often than naught organizations will utilize both of them to some degree. The distinction is simple, preventive maintenance is a blanket maintenance strategy that covers all pieces of equipment in a manufacturing operation at set intervals throughout the year by regularly scheduled maintenance. Predictive maintenance on the other hand uses advanced technological systems to more accurately estimate a machine’s need for a checkup based on the data it collects from the machine. These systems, while ultimately more effective, are inherently more expensive and much more difficult to manage.

While many organizations may want to go the way of predictive maintenance, the barriers to entry are often too much to burden. It’s also worth mentioning that the more traditional maintenance approach in preventive maintenance has worked for decades once they get a clearer understanding of their equipment. Even so, many organizations find ways to interweave the two techniques together to further fortify their equipment’s health.

Also worth mentioning, as more and more organizations do take the leap and invest into these predictive maintenance systems, their capacities evolve. With more machines connected to the Internet of Things, the possibilities these systems can provide continue to expand. More in-depth reporting and analysis of performance and external data can be collected. Which allows owners and managers to be more prepared for equipment failure and can understand when maintenance measures should be taken to prevent said failure.

While it may seem too good to be true, it’s important to remember many organizations will never possess the capital required to implement these systems. This isn’t always a bad thing though, as they are much more sophisticated. Implementing them would mean rigorous retraining of employees to master these systems. In addition, employees may have to abandon all of what they considered the norm for maintenance to get the most out of these systems. Without an organizational culture of change or employees suitable to change, these systems can be difficult to integrate into existing businesses. However, if your organization is able to check all the necessary boxes, these systems are extremely beneficial in the long term.

If you believe your organization is capable of making the change and finding a way to connect predictive maintenance into its fleet, take a minute to review the infographic presented alongside this post. Courtesy of Industrial Service Solutions.