The cost of time and money spent on equipment maintenance might be high. What can be done to maintain competition while generating a profit (ROI)? The technological developments and management techniques used to reduce maintenance and equipment downtime are briefly discussed here.
The market for maintenance, repair, and operations worldwide is anticipated to grow to $701.3 billion by 2026. This enormous expense is the result of various factors in industrial settings. Aging assets are the main reason why unplanned downtime occurs. Unscheduled equipment downtime, in the opinion of maintenance experts, can also be brought on by mechanical failure, operator error, a lack of adequate maintenance time, and bad design.
Installing parts that require little to no maintenance is one technique to reduce the requirement for maintenance. Ultrasonic clamp-on meters are one illustration of this. These meters are used in a variety of settings, including the water distribution industry, and are designed to require little to no maintenance because they don’t have any moving parts that could break down over time.
A thorough preventive maintenance (PM) plan might be another strategy to boost ROI. In fact, preventive maintenance was given top priority by 76 percent of manufacturing enterprises globally in 2020. This approach is based on a pre-set schedule and aims to identify possible problems before they have a chance to become a problem. Therefore, PM aids in reducing downtime, extending equipment life, and boosting resale value. However, depending on the type of machinery, it does increase the asset’s cost of ownership.
Predictive maintenance (PdM) is what. PdM uses sensors to assess the health of in-service assets and uses specialized software and artificial intelligence to provide data in real-time. It is possible to foresee when the asset will need maintenance by analyzing this data. By carrying out actions only when necessary, this strategy aims to potentially reduce costs compared to routine or time-based preventative maintenance.
Managing maintenance is a difficult task. However, the durability and performance of commonplace equipment can be increased by using the proper tools for the job, integrating new technologies, and upgrading to components with low- to no-maintenance.
Please refer to the supplementary resource for more details on the demands for industrial maintenance and possible solutions.
