Written by Capital intensive industries, like the cement industry, are characterized by high initial investments and an asset lifetime of 50 years and more. As a result, you will find building infrastructure and mechanical equipment which is in operation since decades. Tight financial targets for EBITDA and cash flow have resulted in reduced replacement CAPEX and have left many plants nearly in its initial technological stage (at deteriorated conditions). Unless a machine is falling apart, plant operators hardly get an approval for machine upgrades or renewals. Therefore, OEMs and machine builders offering replacements fail due to limited budgets.
Written by Michael Bruckhaus, Managing Director, PREMAS AG
This situation leaves many OEMs and plant operators in a dilemma: The older the machine, the higher the risk of a breakdown. Therefore, a proactive maintenance strategy is required to lower this risk. However, proactive replacements of key components or cost-intense machine upgrades are mostly restricted by limited budgets. As a result, plant operators end up in reactive maintenance to keep their CAPEX. How can machine builders solve this dilemma for plants if only low budgets are approved for the legacy assets? With Predictive Maintenance!
Predictive Maintenance lets outdated machines win the race
Specifically for OEMs, the industrial IoT technologies and cloud-based systems open the door for retrofitting the fleet of legacy machines. Enhancing an outdated machine with new sensors, data acquisition and predictive algorithm is a win-win for the machine owner and the OEM. It fits easily into low budgets but brings huge benefits for both:
Machine owner
The machine owner can sustain its low investment strategy and benefits from additional knowledge about the condition of its machine and a lifetime prediction of key components in real time. Therefore, the plant operator has not to take the risk of a machine breakdown anymore as he can identify urgent maintenance needs ahead and allocate his limited budget accordingly.
OEM / machine builder
At the same time, the OEM / machine builder learns more about the machine behavior and it´s condition. Consequently, he will be able to continuously improve the machines, and offer proactively services and required spare parts ahead of time. Hand in hand the machine availability will thus be improved.
Upgrade what suits best for your machines
Upgrading outdated machines with Predictive Maintenance is not a big deal. However, finding the right solution isn´t as easy. Therefore, preparation is key! Think about the requirements which need to be fulfilled by the Predictive Maintenance Solution and carefully check which solution suits best. In our blog, you will find more about this topic (e.g. Industrial IoT, sensor selection and considerations for applying Predictive Maintenance).
Fit for future with Predictive Maintenance
Retrofitting old machines with condition and performance monitoring as well as Predictive Maintenance is a good way to deal with limited budgets. The costs for an IoT based Predictive Maintenance solution are manageable and worth it. Especially if you want to provide amazing services and a high machine reliability at low CAPEX without risking a complete breakdown with its massive consequences. Predictive Maintenance is nothing magic but a smart way to see what others can´t see and detect what is hidden by the usage of today’s technologies.
