Welcome to the first of four in a series of predictive maintenance. Throughout the month of December, we’ll be taking a closer look at predictive maintenance. In this article, though, we’re going to start at the very beginning, because according to Rodgers and Hammerstein, it’s a ‘very good place to start’. The first paver on the road to incorporating predictive maintenance, and the journey to building value from your assets, lies in understanding:
What is predictive maintenance?
There are differing views on predictive maintenance and where it sits within a business’s maintenance plans, depending upon what model or definitions are favoured by the business. For the purposes of this series of articles, the Asset Management Council aligns predictive maintenance as a partner to corrective maintenance, sitting alongside planned repairs (see image).
The objective of any maintenance activity is to ensure the realisation of the required safety and reliability levels of the asset. Predictive maintenance activities forecast the future failure of an asset, and provide a signal for the commencement of corrective maintenance tasks to ensure that assets can be returned to a specific operational standard.
Therefore, predictive maintenance determines the condition of an asset and to make considered estimates when maintenance should be performed; it can avoid failures which sometimes result in asset downtime. The ultimate purpose is for staff to perform maintenance duties on the asset at a time when maintenance is most cost-effective for the business. Most often, predictive maintenance can be performed while the asset is still operational.
Predictive maintenance is gaining traction due to the huge advances in technology. Using data in predictive maintenance can assure improved operational productivity, efficiency and safety, helping businesses and organisations enable value from their assets.
If you’d like to know more about predictive maintenance, consider joining our Maintenance and Reliability in Asset Management Special Interest Group. Stay tuned for the next instalment on Predictive Maintenance – How to successfully do it in your business.