Implement Predictive Maintenance – Step by Step to your Return on Invest

In the industrial landscape, conflicts between production and maintenance departments are a frequent occurrence. A potential remedy comes in the form of smart machines, which address these conflicts. Where should investments truly be made? And how threatening is predictive maintenance really for employees?

Michael Bruckhaus, Managing Director

The intricate relationship between creating and keeping things running can reveal some challenges. Production is focused on having a steady and uninterrupted process to maximize productivity, while maintenance insists on stopping the machines at regular intervals to make sure they function correctly.
Predictive maintenance, the answer to smart maintenance in industrial digitalization, offers a hand there. But, if the machinery is running, why change something so fundamentally right now?

Step 1: Remove fears

As a machine manufacturer, it is your task in the Industry 4.0 market to convince customers to make changes now. Most companies do not know where to start with their investments and might worry that too much transparency will harm their warranty claims. While talking about Predictive Maintenance, advertising is a minor part of the work. Above all you must allay fears: data-driven systems do not replace jobs!
Working with data requires learning. Without anyone to turn the amassed information and insights into predictions, they stay useless. Companies are often mistaken in thinking that data is automatically dissected by the system and delivered meaningfully. This however is not the case; extracting worth from gathered data necessitates expertise. Analysis can only be automated to a certain extent. Human understanding and the insights of the machinery experts are indispensable. Consequently, alongside artificial intelligence, the notion of ‘enhanced intelligence’ assumes importance: insights are collaboratively harnessed by experienced specialists, empowering companies to make a diverse array of decisions grounded in robust data.

Step 2: Highlight the benefits of investing

The most effective approach for assessing the impact of projects within a company is to evaluate their financial benefits. Predictive maintenance plays a significant role in achieving two crucial objectives:

• Cost Reduction in Maintenance
  By transitioning from a corrective maintenance model to a predictive one, it involves the early identification of components in need of replacement. This proactive approach minimizes maintenance costs by focusing solely on the replacement of the identified part. This targeted intervention not only saves costs but also mitigates the risk of more extensive damage or complete machine failure

Delving into the details of cost reduction through predictive maintenance:

• Improving machine reliability
  Utilizing predictive models can alleviate uncertainty regarding potential failures, thereby optimizing production planning and ultimately enhancing productivity.

The following calculation is an example of return on investment (ROI) for a predictive maintenance solution:

According to our project references, industrial machines typically achieve a return on investment (ROI) within one to two years, with variations depending on the specific application. Especially for critical process machines, the potential impact on ROI can be substantial.

Are you ready to start your Predictive Maintenance journey? Find out more about our Predictive Maintenance Solutions here.