Jumping into Industry 4.

0 with Predictive
Maintenance Solutions
By Giuseppina Tomarchio, Alessandro Faulisi, Werner Neumann, Vladimir Janousek,
11.14.18 0
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To ensure the high level of automation required in today's industrial applications,
equipment must be more efficient, intelligent, aware of context and more connected; it
must also be more robust and ensure greater safety for the humans interacting with
them.

The world of manufacturing is changing. Call it Industry 4.0, the 4th industrial revolution, or
the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), it’s all about doing things just in time, concurrently,
more efficiently, with greater flexibility, and in a safer and more environmentally friendly
manner.

The introduction of new technologies and services associated with the Internet of Things is
revolutionizing many industrial applications. Initiatives such as those in factories regarding
automation and industrial predictive maintenance, and initiatives to build smarter working
environments are creating opportunities for new entrants and traditional players to offer
innovative solutions that change business models.

To ensure the high level of automation required in today’s industrial applications, equipment
must be more efficient, intelligent, aware of context and more connected; it must also be
more robust and ensure greater safety for the humans interacting with them.

1. What is Predictive Maintenance and what are its benefits?

Anyone running a factory wants to keep it running at optimal speed with minimal downtime.
They are also aware that any machine with moving parts suffers wear and tear and inevitably
requires servicing and repair.

One approach is to simply schedule maintenance tasks at fixed intervals, regardless of the
actual condition of the equipment. This is simple to plan, but the maintenance may not occur
in time to prevent equipment damage and dangerous situations, or it may be carried out when
it is not necessary.

A smarter approach is Condition-based Maintenance. This approach drives maintenance

actions based on the observed condition of the machine. Maintenance is therefore performed
before failures and only when necessary. The drawback is that not implementing maintenance
until a machine shows signs of failure is often risky and may interrupt production runs at
highly inconvenient times.

An even better approach is Predictive Maintenance, where maintenance requirements are

predicted well in advance. Predictive Maintenance combines condition monitoring with a
dynamic predictive model for failure modes. This approach promises maximum protection of
machinery and minimum productivity impact, without necessarily increasing overall system
complexity.
According to a study by McKinsey, the use of Predictive Maintenance techniques in factories
can reduce downtime by up to 50% and save between 10 to 40% on equipment maintenance
costs.

Predictive Maintenance relies on condition monitoring through the measurement and analysis
of physical characteristics such as sound, visual inspection, temperature or vibration.

As vibration is indeed the most common symptom of imbalance, misalignment and other
anomalies, Predictive Maintenance is often based on the vibration analysis of rotating
machines such as motors, pumps, spindles, conveyors, manufacturing machines and fans.

Usually, the condition of a machine deteriorates over time, which is reflected in the gradual
change in measured values. Figure 1 shows how different kinds of signals reflect the
deterioration of a motor over time. In principle, the earlier a defect can be detected, the lower
the cost will be for maintenance and potential lost production time.

Figure 1 Deterioration curve and related signals for an electric motor. Vibration Signal
Frequencies Spectrum and relative fault cause (Source STMicroelectronics)
Click here for larger image

Until recently, fault indicators like vibration and sound emissions were almost exclusively
monitored with discrete portable sensor probes based on piezoelectric or ultrasound sensing
principles. Not only is diagnostic equipment based on these technologies relatively complex
and expensive, there are also limitations related to repeatability, data management and
analysis.

A new approach is now possible thanks to state-of-the-art electronics and advanced

algorithms. We can now apply small, low-power sensing devices directly on machines and
monitor multiple parameters, pre-process acquired signal data, and send the data to local,
remote or cloud-based analysis and control facilities. These compact smart sensor nodes
consisting of sensors, a microcontroller, power management circuitry and wired or wireless
connectivity offer many advantages over traditional condition monitoring equipment:

 Cost: smart sensor nodes with autonomous operation cost much less than portable
piezoelectric probes and the skilled technicians required to operate them.
 Repeatable, reliable and timely data: with continuous measurement and analysis
during machine operation, and not according to maintenance schedules that may miss
early or critical failure signs.
 Ability to trigger immediate local action: intelligent algorithms can analyze data
locally on the node and trigger immediate actions to protect the equipment and ensure
worker safety
 Adjust monitoring parameters over time: The sensor node can be configured to
account for increasing tolerances of aging equipmen
 In addition to the local advantages sensor nodes offer for single machines, they can
also be used in cloud networks to gather large amounts of data for deeper predictive
maintenance analyses.
2. Predictive Maintenance Architecture and Technologies

Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance systems include a number of smart sensor
nodes connected in a network via a gateway to an Edge server or to a cloud service as shown
in Figure 2.
 Figure 2 General architecture of a Predictive Maintenance system and integration with ERP
(Source STMicroelectronics)
Click here for larger image

Depending on the Enterprise Resource Management architecture, data can be processed

immediately on sensor nodes using embedded analytics, and on remote servers or cloud
infrastructure which can process and correlate many data sets over time. Predictive
Maintenance systems are usually connected to the Maintenance and Procurement component
of ERP systems for timely ordering of spare parts.

 In these broader systems, it is crucial to distribute analysis between the cloud, Edge
servers and sensor nodes for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. The ability to
detect machine deterioration at the node level allows immediate corrective action on a
machine, which can prevent further damage and failure. Longer term analysis and
actions can be managed on the cloud, allowing more complex analytics on large
amounts of pre-processed data, which can be useful to determine trends and optimize
local analysis models.

Figure 3 shows the numerous components at work in a smart sensor node.

Figure 3 Block Diagram of a Sensor Node (Wired or Wireless) for Vibration Analysis
(Source STMicroelectronics)
Click here for larger image
Sensors of various types can be used, including temperature, pressure, and humidity sensors
for environmental data, accelerometers for vibration measurement, current sensing devices,
and microphones for ultrasound. In condition monitoring and Predictive Maintenance
systems, it is essential to periodically verify proper sensor operation, and the self-test feature
allows verification of the functionality of any sensor, regardless of where it is positioned,
without moving it.

Accelerometers are particularly suitable for failure detection in rotating machines where
acceleration, velocity and amplitude of a vibration can provide warning signs for imminent
failures. Another warning parameter is ultrasound emission, which can precede vibration (see
Figure 1).

Capacitive MEMS technology, widely deployed in smartphones and other consumer devices,
is gaining traction in industrial applications. MEMS devices cost less and offer more
flexibility, and are closing the gap with piezoelectric sensors in terms of accuracy, stability,
bandwidth, temperature, and dynamic range. They are also far more resilient to high
acceleration shock.

For sound emissions, analysis can be performed in both the acoustic and ultrasonic spectra
(above 20 kHz), which allows very early detection of deterioration and can be used in to
detect several fault causes including gas leaks and fan and motor imbalance.

Microcontrollers provide local data processing capability with data capture, processing and
communication handling. Microcontrollers offer different features in term of processing
power, memory and interfaces, and can be selected according to application requirements.

One of the key processing tasks of the microcontroller is to perform Embedded Analytics:
usually both time domain and frequency spectrum analysis (FFT), as well as other embedded
analytics.

By embedding FFT analysis near the sensor, vibration shifts can be immediately isolated to
specific sources. Moreover, FFT and additional preprocessing and analytics can be developed
to filter noise out of real signals and set precise alarm thresholds. An example is shown in
Figure 4.
 Figure 4 An example of Frequency Domain screening with programmable thresholds for
alarm settings (Source STMicroelectronics)
Click here for larger image

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of machine learning and deep learning is a
technological breakthrough made possible by sheer quantities of available data (necessary for
machine learning), modern programming techniques and open-source tools for neural-
network training, powerful (cloud) computing centers and ever-improving embedded-
processing systems.

Artificial Intelligence can be defined as a machine’s ability to perform logical analysis,

acquire knowledge and adapt to an environment that varies over time or in a given context.
This definition corresponds exactly to what we would like to do with the data captured from
sensors embedded on factory machinery.

AI is a way to extract useful information and trigger actions from data. Rather than relying on
specialized programmers to create detailed algorithms specifying every analytical step for a
target application, AI allows machines to “learn” and develop their own way of analyzing
data. The result of this “learning” can be distilled down into what is called a Neural Network.

When we look at the architecture of Predictive Maintenance systems, we can see that AI can
be applied at different levels: from cloud computing centers, which process large amounts of
data and develop appropriate Neural Networks, down to microcontrollers where compressed
versions of these Neural Networks can be used to perform local embedded analytics. We can
even deploy the Neural Networks directly in new generations of smart sensors.
Connectivity is managed through standard wired and industrial protocols (IO-Link,
Industrial-Ethernet, Modbus, etc.), as well as wireless (Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi,
Cellular). There is no unique solution and the choice is often driven by factory infrastructure
and other circumstances.

Security in an industrial environment requires smart sensor nodes to be secure during data
processing and communication to prevent unauthorized access and ensure a trusted link
between the sensors to the central system. Security must be implemented across various
levels from individual devices like microcontrollers to cross-system communications links.

Power Management in a battery-operated sensor is critical and power management systems

must be designed to allow Condition Monitoring sensors to operate for long periods (in terms
of years) without intervention.
3. Expediting system design and field test for Predictive Maintenance solutions

Setting up a predictive maintenance solution based on a smart sensor system may take 1 to 2
years, involving several important steps:

 Defining the system architecture

 Finding sensors with the right accuracy and stability, at the right cost and availability,
 Defining the required specification for the microcontroller including computational
power, memory and interfaces
 Choosing the connectivity technologies
 Designing the power management stage and suitable form factor
 Implementing the required analytics as well as characterizing the system
 Validating everything in a real application scenario

Conclusions

Predictive Maintenance is one of the key enablers of Smart Factories and the technologies to
implement make it happen are already here: sensing, connectivity, security, power
management and embedded processing with Artificial Intelligence capabilities. Add cloud
computing and connectivity and you have all the ingredients to create sophisticated, high
performance systems that can deliver the full benefits of Predictive Maintenance applications.
Why predictive maintenance is
fundamental in Industry 4.0
A monitoring system requires hardware and software components, including condition
monitoring sensors, gateways and modules to handle data processing and transmission, and a
secured cloud server to handle data storage and data analytics

By Giovanni Campanella, Systems Engineer, Factory Automation, Texas Instruments

Cost, safety, availability, and reliability are the main reasons why key industrial players are
investing in predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance allows factories to monitor the
condition of in-service equipment by measuring key parameters like vibration, temperature,
pressure, and current. Such monitoring requires connected smart sensors featuring a high-
speed signal chain, powerful processing, and wired and/or wireless connectivity.

The current trend is leaning toward wireless connectivity because it is possible to cover
remote locations and does not add extra wiring costs. Wireless connectivity converts existing
equipment into smart equipment (rather than replacing it), enabling users to plan maintenance
based on actual needs and increasing productivity and efficiency. That is the ultimate goal of
Industry 4.0.

Why predictive maintenance?

According to the U.S. National Response Center, it costs approximately 50% more to repair a
failed asset than if the problem had been addressed before failure.

In addition, if an asset such as a motor fails in an unpredictable way in a factory environment,

it could hurt an operator working with it, possibly resulting in a lost-time incident, fines, or
audits.

Finally, an unavailable asset can slow down or even stop production, causing the loss of
millions of dollars and, in some cases, even customers.

Cost, safety, availability, and reliability are the main reasons why predictive maintenance is
fundamental in Industry 4.0, a trend whose goal is to make factories more productive,
efficient, and flexible. A leading solution for predictive maintenance is condition monitoring.

By monitoring the status of an asset and predicting its failure, factory workers will be able to
replace or repair the asset before it breaks. This proactive approach avoids downtime and
increases the mean time between failure (MTBF), which improves the production process and
makes it more efficient. You can see an example of a production cell in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1: Example of a production cell.

What is predictive maintenance?

Developing an effective monitoring system requires both hardware and software components,
including condition monitoring sensors, gateways and modules that will handle data
processing and transmission, and a secured cloud server to act as the software component and
handle data storage and data analytics.

The sensor is the first and most important component of the entire system. Vibration,
temperature, pressure, and current are only some of the parameters that can indicate
equipment status. A low-power and small-footprint solution with high-resolution, high-speed
conversion is needed for the condition monitoring sensor to obtain reliable data, which, when
processed, can determine the machine health.

The processing part, which may entail efficient, scalable fast Fourier transform (FFT)
calculation to predict potential equipment failures, can either occur at the sensor level or be
outsourced to a gateway, module, or the cloud. It is important to keep in mind that edge
processing done directly in the field will reduce system power and lower network bandwidth
by taking some of the processing capabilities away from the control or operator level (the
“core”) to the field level (the “edge”).

From the sensor, data will be transmitted via wire to either a gateway or module through
standard interfaces such as 4–20 mA, Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART),
IO-Link, or industrial Ethernet while leveraging the existing network or using other interfaces
like Integrated Electronics Piezo-Electric (IEPE) for accelerometers based on a piezoelectric
measurement principle.

Although a condition monitoring gateway allows data communication between multiple

wired or wireless sensor nodes to a central condition monitoring system, a condition
monitoring module has the same features as the gateway in addition to processing
capabilities.
A wireless network such as a wireless mesh network (like Wireless HART), a wireless point-
to-point network (like IO-Link wireless), or a star network (like sub-1 GHz) would be the
best solution to transmit data when equipment is in a remote location or when using an
existing wired network is not possible or not convenient.

Mesh networks make radio systems more reliable by allowing radios to forward messages to
other radios. For example, if a node cannot send a message directly to another node, the mesh
network forwards the message through one or more intermediary nodes.

Other protocols such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth are used for configuration purposes, allowing
operators to interact with the equipment wirelessly instead of through a standard touch panel.

From the gateway, data will be transmitted either to a condition monitoring module, a factory
control system data monitor, or to a secured cloud server. This is the last chain link where,
based on the monitored data, a decision would be taken if equipment needs to be maintained
or not. However, the ability to accurately interpret and communicate this data with a deep-
learning algorithm is essential for system reliability. Indeed, a condition monitoring solution
with deep learning would reduce the human error and makes predictive maintenance
solutions smarter and more effective.

How predictive maintenance is implemented?

Texas Instruments (TI) implemented predictive maintenance in one of its factories by
equipping several vacuum pumps with a sensor node, a reference design developed by TI,
which measures and collects data from the pump, such as temperature, motor current,
nitrogen flow, and water flow, transmitting the data to the internet through a gateway as
depicted in Fig. 2.

TI can easily access the data through the internet for continuous monitoring and analysis,
giving operators of the pumps insight into operating conditions. For example, independent of
the usual maintenance schedule, operators could identify defective equipment that might
cause a system shutdown and replace it before any damage occurs.

Fig. 2: Example of a wireless mesh network for predictive maintenance.

With this practical example, TI has been able to upgrade its own factory to a smart factory
enabling predictive maintenance by monitoring the condition of in-service equipment.
Indeed, predictive maintenance is one of the main factors that will drive the Fourth Industrial
Revolution, making factories more efficient and productive, reducing unplanned downtime,
improving reliability, and saving maintenance costs.
Preventive Maintenance
What is Preventive Maintenance

Preventative or preventive maintenance is a simple method to ensure that you get reliable and
efficient performance from you plant and equipment within your organization. It is important
to ensure that machinery does not break down when you need it most and this simple
maintenance program will help you to achieve that.

The most common example of preventative maintenance that people can easily relate to is
that of automotive maintenance. We all know that to ensure reliable use of our vehicle it is
important that we have it serviced every 6 to 10,000 miles depending on the manufacturer’s
requirements. The same is true of our machines in our factories, we need to have them
regularly maintained in much the same way, either after a period of time or a number of
machine cycles as recommended by the manufacturer.

Much like our cars the maintenance required may change from service to service, some
services may only require us to change the oil and others may require greater work such as
the replacement of belts and other fluids.

Why do we need preventive maintenance?

Ensure Reliability with Preventive Maintenance

The purpose of preventive maintenance is to try to maintain the equipment in optimum

working condition and to prevent any unplanned downtime due to breakdowns, breakdowns
often occurring at that critical point in time when you are desperately trying to fulfill your
most important customers order.

Preventive maintenance can include measuring and checking components as well as the
replacement of various components just as you would replace the timing belt on your car. The
reason for this is that everything wears over time and the costs of replacing some items prior
to actual failure are far less than the potential consequences of failure whilst in service. Many
car engines would suffer significant damage if the timing belt broke, and you would incur far
greater expense than if you had just replaced the belt prior to failure.

Some people see the maintenance function as an expense and it is often one of the first
departments to suffer from cuts when times become difficult, however this is very much false
economy as the money spent on preventing problems from occurring will almost always be
far less than the costs you will incur due to actual failures. However it is often difficult to
justify “just in case” expenditure and it is all too easy to hide the costs of failure in a
multitude of places within the budget.

Planned Preventive Maintenance

Within many organizations there are departments responsible for maintenance, their role is to
define a planned preventive maintenance program in liaison with the production and
scheduling departments to have machines released on a regular basis to enable the
maintenance work to be conducted.

This planned preventive maintenance program can often be a bone of contention between the
different departments with “busy” production departments often refusing to release machines
due to the need to meet customer demands; however, often the reason for being busy is
because of having to work around delays and quality problems caused by unreliable machines
that are desperate for a service.

It is important that planned maintenance is seen as necessary and machines released when
they are required, in the long run this will ease the burden on the manufacturing departments
as machines will be more reliable and more efficient.

Preventive Maintenance Software

There are many software programs on the market with which to create and monitor your
planned preventive maintenance program, even some that are free to download. However
whatever choice you make you need to choose one that will support your system, not one that
makes you have to conform to its ways of working if they do not support your company’s
methods and processes.

Preventive maintenance software is required in many companies due to the complexity of

tasks and numbers of machines that are required to be maintained, a good maintenance
software can ease the creation of your maintenance program.

Preventive Maintenance alternatives

Preventative maintenance is not the only method through which you can maintain your
machines, there are other alternatives;

Breakdown maintenance;

In some companies the only maintenance that is conducted is breakdown maintenance or

repair, no servicing or preventive maintenance is done, the operators run machines until they
fail and then hand them over to the maintenance technicians to fix them. Whilst for some
machines this can be the most efficient and economical method for most it is not!
Predictive maintenance;

predictive maintenance is similar to preventive maintenance in that we make repairs and

replacements before a breakdown can occur, the difference is that predictive maintenance
uses various predictive maintenance tools such as thermal imaging and vibration analysis to
predict when a breakdown is going to occur by identifying wear. This can lead to components
being used for far longer periods rather than just being replaced at each service whether they
need to be replaced or not.

Preventive Maintenance Video

Preventive Maintenance and Total Productive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is an important part of any total productive maintenance (TPM)

implementation as part of a lean initiative. Lean manufacturing requires for our our processes
to be reliable and stable and the use of TPM and 5S allow us to build a solid base for further
improvements. It would be very hard to make improvements if you could not rely on your
machinery.

TPM passes some of the preventive maintenance requirements to the machine operators
themselves through a system known as autonomous maintenance. This makes the operators
responsible for simple maintenance tasks such as lubrication as well as inspecting and
monitoring the machinery to prevent breakdowns. This allows the maintenance technicians to
work on methods to make maintenance both easier and in some instances unnecessary.

TPM also goes well beyond just preventing breakdowns; it seeks to prevent all machine
related losses so we look at the quality, the efficiency and the setup of our machines in
addition to just purely focusing on preventing breakdowns. We use lean manufacturing tools
such as SMED (Single minute Exchange of Die) to improve setup times and efficiencies and
ideas like PokaYoke to prevent defects from being created by our machinery.

A planned Preventive maintenance program is part of any tpm initiative as well as being a
common sense requirement for any company if they want their machines to be reliable and
efficient.
hat is preventive maintenance (PM)?

Preventive maintenance (or preventive maintenance) is maintenance that is regularly

performed on a piece of equipment to lessen the likelihood of it failing. It is performed while
the equipment is still working so that it does not break down unexpectedly. In terms of the
complexity of this maintenance strategy, it falls between reactive (or run-to-failure)
maintenance and predictive maintenance.

Types of preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance can be scheduled on a time or usage based trigger. Let’s look at an
example for each.

Time-based preventive maintenance

A typical example of a time-based preventive maintenance trigger is a regular inspection on a

critical piece of equipment that would severely impact production in the event of a
breakdown.

Usage-based preventive maintenance

Usage-based triggers fire after a certain amount of kilometres, hours, or production cycles.
An example of this trigger is a motor-vehicle which might be scheduled for service every
10,000km.

 What is preventive maintenance (PM)?

 Types of preventive maintenance
 When is it suitable to use preventive maintenance?
 Preventive maintenance planning
 Advantages of preventive maintenance
 Disadvantages of preventive maintenance
 The bottom line: the impact of preventive maintenance
 Back to maintenance strategies

When is it suitable to use preventive maintenance?

Suitable preventive maintenance applications

Assets suitable for preventive maintenance include those that:

 Have a critical operational function

 Have failure modes that can be prevented (and not increased) with regular maintenance
 Have a likelihood of failure that increases with time or use
Unsuitable preventive maintenance applications

Unsuitable applications for preventive maintenance include those that:

 Have random failures that are unrelated to maintenance (such as circuit boards)
 Do not serve a critical function

Preventive maintenance planning

Planning preventive maintenance without the help of CMMS software can be a huge
challenge. Since PMs are triggered after a certain amount of time or use, it’s difficult (if not
near impossible) to track that data manually, especially if you’re dealing with many pieces of
critical equipment. Maintenance software allows you to set PMs according to the triggers that
are appropriate for each piece of equipment. Once the trigger occurs, a work order will be
created.

Maintenance software also allows organizations to gather data surrounding PM activities to

report on or optimize those activities, and set maintenance KPIs to work towards.

Advantages of preventive maintenance

Advantages compared with less complex strategies

Planning is the biggest advantage of a preventive maintenance program over less complex
strategies. Unplanned, reactive maintenance has many overhead costs that can be avoided
during the planning process. The cost of unplanned maintenance includes lost production,
higher costs for parts and shipping, as well as time lost responding to emergencies and
diagnosing faults while equipment is not working. Unplanned maintenance typically costs
three to nine times more than planned maintenance. When maintenance is planned, each of
these costs can be reduced. Equipment can be shut down to coincide with production
downtime. Prior to the shutdown, any required parts, supplies and personnel can be gathered
to minimize the time taken for a repair. These measures decrease the total cost of the
maintenance. Safety is also improved because equipment breaks down less often than in less
complex strategies.

Advantages compared with more complex strategies

A preventive maintenance program does not require condition-based monitoring. This

eliminates the need (and cost) to conduct and interpret condition monitoring data and act on
the results of that interpretation. It also eliminates the need to own and use condition
monitoring equipment.
Disadvantages of preventive maintenance
Disadvantages compared with less complex strategies

Unlike reactive maintenance, preventive maintenance requires maintenance planning. This

requires an investment in time and resources that is not required with less complex
maintenance strategies.

Maintenance may occur too often with a preventive maintenance program. Unless, and until
the maintenance frequencies are optimized for minimum maintenance, too much or too little
preventive maintenance will occur.

Disadvantages compared with more complex strategies

The frequency of preventive maintenance is most likely to be too high. This frequency can be
lowered, without sacrificing reliability when condition monitoring and analysis is used. The
decrease in maintenance frequency is offset by the additional costs associated with
conducting the condition monitoring.

The bottom line: the impact of preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance, or PM, is regular, planned maintenance that is scheduled according

to usage or time-based triggers. The purpose of PM is to lessen the likelihood of equipment
breakdowns. There are many instances in which preventive is the best maintenance strategy
to use, and it’s much easier to carry out a PM strategy with the help of maintenance software.
What is planned maintenance?

Planned maintenance refers to any maintenance activity that is planned, documented, and
scheduled. The aim of planned maintenance is to reduce downtime by having all necessary
resources on hand, such as labour and parts, and a strategy to use these resources.

There are two main types of planned maintenance. The first is planned preventive
maintenance, which is scheduled maintenance aimed at repairing assets before they fail. An
example would be conducting maintenance on a forklift after every 150 hours of operation.

The second is planned and unscheduled maintenance, which is based on having a strategy in
place to repair or replace an asset as quickly as possible when it fails. An example would be
planning to have a sufficient number of easily accessible power drills on hand so replacing a
broken one is quick and easy for a technician.

Scheduled maintenance

Scheduled maintenance activities are tasks that are set up to occur ahead of time. They are
done so assets can remain functional for as long as possible without any unplanned
downtime. Scheduled maintenance is determined by maintenance triggers, including time,
usage, event, and condition.

Advantages of scheduled maintenance

Know what to expect

Planning maintenance in advance allows you to properly allocate resources to the job, so that
you have the time, personnel, and tools you need, when you need them.

Manage your calendar

Some scheduled maintenance can be planned years in advance, like changing the tires on an
industrial transport vehicle every winter. Other tasks require shorter lead times, such as
swapping out air compressors after 100 hours of use. Planning maintenance in advance lets
you look ahead in your calendar and see what’s coming up, so you are rarely caught reacting
to breakdowns and spreading your resources too thin.

Get work done faster

Planned maintenance allows the maintenance team to focus on efficiency. Technicians can
gather all the parts they need, review all best practices and procedures, and shut down the
asset safely before starting work. Because all this work has been done beforehand, the actual
maintenance can be finished quicker, easier, safer, and more effectively than if an asset goes
down unexpectedly.

 What is planned maintenance?

 Scheduled maintenance
 Advantages of scheduled maintenance
 Planned unscheduled maintenance
 How to implement planned maintenance
  The bottom line: the impact of planned maintenance
 Back to maintenance strategies

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Planned unscheduled maintenance

Also known as run-to-failure maintenance, planned but unscheduled maintenance occurs in

situations where the maintenance plan for an asset is to wait for it to break.

This approach is typically reserved for assets that have little or no impact on production.
Tools, such as power drills and measuring instruments, are a good example. It’s wasteful to
preemptively replace these tools, as they inexpensive and are not critical to production.
Instead, organizations keep extra tools on hand so they are available when one fails.

This is still considered planned maintenance (rather than reactive) because the assets are
tracked and a strategy to repair them is in place when they wear out, instead of being caught
off guard by failure.

How to implement planned maintenance

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to implementing planned maintenance. Every facility is

different and requires a slightly different approach. However, there are few basic steps
maintenance teams can take to build a foundation for planned maintenance success.

Using planned maintenance software

Technology is an important ingredient for implementing planned maintenance. Leveraging

planned maintenance software, such as a CMMS, allows you to organize all the resources
necessary to plan maintenance, like labour and parts. Planned maintenance software makes it
easy to handle schedules, inventory, work orders and reports. This ensure triggers are set up
properly, technicians can respond to work quickly, and the right parts are always in stock so
maintenance can be completed with little disruption.

Organizing your assets

The first step is to take a survey of your assets and figure out which ones fit into each
category of planned maintenance. Remember, there is planned preventive maintenance and
planned unscheduled maintenance. Conducting a criticality analysis can help you determine
which assets require the most attention and which ones lend themselves to a preventive
approach.
Training and executing the strategy

Planned maintenance requires the entire team to participate and be aware of their
responsibilities. It’s crucial to ensure everyone is trained on new technology, processes and
procedures. When everyone knows exactly how they fit into a planned maintenance strategy
and the resources available to them, it makes implementation much smoother and more
effective. If planned maintenance is completely new for your team, consider testing the
strategy to help them adjust to a new way of doing things.

Building planned maintenance checklists

Keep an eye on how your planned maintenance strategy is working after it has launched.
Planned maintenance checklists help track maintenance KPIs, which can give you a good
idea of the program is impacting efficiency at your operation. Identify where the plan is
working and where it can be improved. Take advantage of data capture and reporting tools to
make insights actionable. When fine-tuning the planned maintenance strategy, consult all
stakeholders. Technicians, operators and others can provide unique feedback on tweaking the
strategy for optimal results.

The bottom line: the impact of planned maintenance

Planned maintenance is a useful tool for making your maintenance operation more efficient.
It guarantees you have the right strategy and resources in place to tackle any kind of
maintenance quickly and easily, whether it’s scheduled or not. Implementing planned
maintenance will be different for every facility, but some tried and true ways to be successful
include organizing your assets, using planned maintenance software, training and executing
properly and building planned maintenance checklists. With these tools and methods, your
team will spend less time putting out fires and more time looking for opportunities to
improve.
Why Preventive Maintenance Is So
Important
There are two types of maintenance strategies employed by companies that rely on equipment
– reactive maintenance and preventive maintenance. Reactive maintenance goes by the “if it
isn’t broke, don’t fix it” motto, a strategy that can sometimes save money short term but often
ends up costing even more in the long run. Preventive maintenance, on the other hand, is a
carefully designed maintenance program (often using CMMS software) where maintenance
tasks are performed routinely in order to avoid larger, costly fixes down the line.

Many maintenance professionals have recognized the benefits of preventive maintenance and
are now turning to preventive maintenance software for ongoing equipment upkeep. Here is a
look at 7 reasons why preventive maintenance is a much better alternative to reactive
maintenance.

Cost Savings

Companies that rely solely on reactive maintenance are essentially waiting for a problem to
happen, and this can often be a very costly move. Unplanned downtime can result in idle
employees, halting the production line, missed deadlines, and – for property managers of
hotels, resorts, school campuses and other consumer facing industries – long-term damage to
their brand. An unexpected failure can also mean having to pay technicians overtime and
having to pay out extra money for overnight delivery of parts. A preventive maintenance
program is meant to avoid these problems through long-term maintenance tasks that are
planned for using CMMS software.

A preventive maintenance plan can save a company money because efforts will be focused on
preventing equipment failure rather than responding to emergencies, and preventive
maintenance is usually much cheaper and faster than big fixes. Maintenance managers can
use CMMS software to set up a maintenance program, which simplifies the transition from
reactive to preventive maintenance and is also very cost effective.

Improved Safety

When equipment isn’t working in optimal condition, it creates many hazards, unsafe working
conditions and even emergency situations where workers are injured. Preventive maintenance
improves the safety of equipment and therefore the safety of company workers resulting in
fewer on the job injuries and accidents.

Increased Equipment Efficiency

CMMS software can help plan routine maintenance such as inspections, oil and fluid
changes, part replacements and more. These little fixes can help equipment to run much more
efficiently. In turn, a company will benefit from fuel and energy savings because equipment
will be running at peak performance.
Decreased Equipment Downtime

While almost all maintenance tasks require some equipment downtime, a preventive
maintenance program can decrease and optimize that downtime. For example, a company
doesn’t experience unexpected downtime as much as if they were to rely solely on reactive
maintenance. Companies can also use CMMS software to pre-plan maintenance tasks at
optimal times so the downtime experienced is less troublesome. Decreasing equipment
downtime is a benefit that saves time in maintenance and day-to-day operations.

Improved Reliability

Preventive maintenance can also help a company to be a more reliable business partner.
Customers can count on a company to deliver products, materials, or service on time, without
unnecessary delays. A resort with broken air conditioning will not succeed for long. By
always offering a reliable product or service, a company can enhance its customer service and
improve its reputation.

Conservation of Assets

Most equipment these days is certainly not cheap, but the better a company cares for its
equipment, the longer it will last. Preventive maintenance will prolong the life of equipment
so a company can get more hours out the equipment, resulting in reduced costs and increased
profit.

The numerous benefits of preventive maintenance has caused many maintenance managers to
shift from reactive maintenance to a regular, routine preventive maintenance plan meant to
prevent problems and optimize equipment. Today’s CMMS software helps facilitate
preventive maintenance by helping schedule maintenance tasks and keep organized records
of all inspections and fixes. Preventive maintenance is the best option for companies that
want to succeed long term, and therefore understand that they need a long term plan for
proper equipment upkeep.