Welcome to the industrial maintenance world – a pivotal component ensuring seamless operations in the manufacturing unit. Adequately maintained machinery and equipment are paramount to boost productivity in any industry. This comprehensive blog aims to provide an inclusive understanding of maintenance in industries. It walks you through the definitions, delves into best practices, types, and technologies of maintenance, and highlights the significance of maintenance in industries.
What is Industrial Maintenance?
Industrial maintenance is a set of processes or activities to ensure asset performance, reliability, and durability in industrial settings. Regular inspections, functional checks and repairs, residential installations, parts replacement, and other industrial asset maintenance-related functions are involved in manufacturing maintenance to prevent breakdowns. Maintenance ensures optimal performance in industries by reducing downtime caused by the malfunction of assets. It also lowers the safety hazards caused due to faulty machinery, which can lead to employee injuries.
Industrial maintenance best practices encompass various disciplines, including mechanical, instrumentation, and electrical, and cover multiple activities such as predictive maintenance, preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, and shutdown management. Thanks to advanced technologies like sensors, Machine learning in computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), it’s now possible to predict breakdowns and carry out our maintenance operations even before their occurrence.
Implementing industrial maintenance best practices enables companies to enhance their bottom line by reducing operational costs associated with unplanned downtime or breakdowns. By understanding various manufacturing maintenance strategies, industries can efficiently choose the right approach to optimize maintenance. In the upcoming blog section, we will learn about the fundamental strategy utilized in industries for maintenance.
Types of Industrial Maintenance Strategies
Industries employ various strategies in industrial asset maintenance based on their requirements and goals. These types of maintenance approaches can be utilized together or independently to increase maintenance efficiency. The choice of maintenance types depends on factors like maintenance cost, operational goals, risks, and asset type.
The Few Regularly Utilized Maintenance Strategies –
1. Reactive Maintenance
This strategy takes maintenance actions only after a breakdown or failure occurs. It involves repairing or replacing the equipment to restore it to working condition. Even though reactive maintenance is easy, it might lead to costly downtime and unexpected interference.
2. Preventive Maintenance
This strategy focuses on the scheduled servicing, inspections, repair, and replacements of parts to prevent failures before they occur to optimize the asset performance. It includes routine asset maintenance tasks like lubrication, calibration, and cleaning. Preventive maintenance aims to reduce unexpected breakdowns and extend the asset life by performing the scheduled maintenance tasks.
3. Condition-based Maintenance
This maintenance strategy relies on real-time asset condition monitoring with the help of sensors and advanced technologies. The sensors collect data regarding asset performance, which is later analyzed, and maintenance actions are taken based on the asset condition. Condition-based monitoring optimizes maintenance schedules, minimizes unplanned downtime, and reduces industry maintenance costs.
4. Predictive Maintenance
This strategy in industrial maintenance utilizes conditional monitoring techniques and data analysis to predict performance degradations or asset failures by monitoring the parameters such as temperatures, vibrations, or any environmental data. This parameter helps the maintenance team to identify early warning signs and intervene proactively. Predictive maintenance optimizes maintenance activities and reduces downtime.
5. Prescriptive Maintenance
Prescriptive maintenance is an advanced strategy utilized in manufacturing maintenance. It uses data analysis and AI to predict asset failures and provide specific maintenance action recommendations. It identifies patterns, anomalies, and correlations with the help of real-time data and AI algorithms, allowing maintenance technicians to take proactive measures. The utilization of prescriptive maintenance minimizes downtime, improves asset performance, and maximizes operational efficiency through actionable insights.
The Benefits of Industrial Maintenance
1. Increased Equipment Reliability
Regular maintenance practices enable industries to effectively identify and address potential issues before they escalate into a major breakdown. The organization utilizes preventive maintenance and condition monitoring to minimize unexpected asset failures and downtime. These technologies allow industries to ensure timely interventions and adjustments, preventing major equipment failures and increasing the equipment’s reliability.
2. Improved Safety
Regular maintenance checks and inspections in Industries are vital as they contribute to safer work environments. Faulty or malfunctioning assets in industries can pose risks to employees. They might lead to injuries or disasters, so it’s essential to understand and adapt to the importance of industrial maintenance. Industrial maintenance ensures that all the assets meet safety standards and operate perfectly without potential hazards.
3. Extended Equipment Life
The extended asset life is vital in increased organizational production. The industry’s maintenance technology conducts regular preventive maintenance, and industrial assets are inspected, repaired, and serviced to address potential issues before they accelerate into significant failures. It reduces wear and tear, ensures that assets operate optimally, and prevents premature deterioration. Manufacturing maintenance further involves cleaning and lubrication, which reduces friction and prevents asset damage in industries, thus extending the equipment’s life.
4. Enhanced Productivity
Regular maintenance checks and inspections in Industries are vital as they contribute to safer work environments. Faulty or malfunctioning assets in industries can pose risks to employees. They might lead to injuries or disasters, so it’s essential to understand and adapt to the importance of industrial maintenance. Industrial maintenance ensures that all the assets meet safety standards and operate perfectly without potential hazards.
5. Reduction of Annual Maintenance Cost
Maintenance plays a vital role in decreasing the cost of maintenance in organizations. Industries implement various strategies to reduce equipment breakdown and downtime, lowering annual maintenance costs. Various maintenance activities like lubrication, calibration, and cleaning can help maintenance technicians optimize equipment performance and prevent premature wear and tear of assets.
It reduces the need for costly replacements or repairs. Additionally, proactive maintenance enables better planning and scheduling of maintenance tasks, enhanced resource allocation, and reduced downtime, reducing annual maintenance costs in industries.
Components Contribute to Industrial Maintenance Costs
Understanding and managing the components that contribute to the cost of industrial maintenance is vital for effective cost control in industries. An organization must balance minimizing expenses while ensuring equipment safety, reliability, and optimal performance.
Here are the few Components which contributes to Industrial Maintenance Costs :
Labor Cost:
Labor expenses involve maintenance personnel wages, benefits, and training costs. Skilled maintenance technicians are essential for industries to execute maintenance tasks efficiently and successfully.
Spare Parts and Materials:
The cost of spare parts, lubricants, components, and other vital materials essential for maintenance tasks contributes significantly to the maintenance cost. Proper inventory management and purchase strategies are crucial to controlling costs of maintenance.
Equipment and Tools:
Asset maintenance in industries requires dedicated tools, specialized equipment, and instruments to conduct the maintenance operation. The cost of accruing, maintaining, and replacing these tools or equipment contributes to industrial maintenance.
Outsourcing and Contracted services:
Various industries today utilize contractors or outsourced services to conduct maintenance tasks. Organizations might require the help of external contractors or service providers for some specialized maintenance tasks when the organizations need more resources to perform specific tasks. These outsourced services add up to the total maintenance cost of the maintenance tasks.
Maintenance Management Systems:
Industries prefer implementing maintenance management software, IoT devices, sensors, and data analytic platforms to conduct maintenance operations. These technologies are vital for effective maintenance planning, decision-making, and data analysis, and implementing these technologies incurs costs in manufacturing maintenance.
Understanding the cost of tracking, developing, energy, utilities, facility, infrastructure, compliance, regulations, and unplanned failures is essential for effective cost control in asset maintenance.
Technology Revolution in Industrial Maintenance Management
Technological revolution over the years in industries has profoundly impacted maintenance management, transforming how maintenance tasks are planned, executed, and monitored, along with the technology, tools, process, and people who conduct the maintenance operation. The resolution in maintenance technology has transformed the industrial maintenance process, making maintenance more effective, practical, and data-driven.
The technological revolution in maintenance management is about integrating new technologies and data-driven approaches to enhance efficiency, optimize asset performance, and reduce downtime.
Here are a few of the key technological developments in industrial asset maintenance management –
Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)
CMMS software streamlines and automates the maintenance process with its centralized platform revolutionizing manufacturing maintenance. It enables effective maintenance work order management, asset tracking, performance monitoring, preventive maintenance scheduling, inventory management, and data analytics for informed decision-making.
Internet of Things (IoT)
In maintenance technology, IoT enables real-time monitoring of equipment’s performance, condition, and health by connecting the assets or equipment with the Internet. The IoT sensors attached to the equipment collect environmental data, which is further analyzed to predict maintenance requirements, optimize maintenance schedules, and prevent unexpected failures.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
The involvement of AR and VR with industrial maintenance facilitates maintenance managers and technicians to plan maintenance activities. It enables them to visualize asset data in real time and provides access to the tools. The AR and VR technologies also aid in troubleshooting and guided repairs, reducing the need for physical presence.
Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics
The Involvement of vast data in manufacturing maintenance has paved the way for advanced data analytics and AI applications in maintenance management. AI technologies help to identify patterns, glitches, and associations in the maintenance data, providing insights for optimizing.
Cloud Computing and Big Data
The vast maintenance data produced in industrial asset maintenance need a secure and scalable place for storage. Cloud-based platforms provide access to safe and scalable storage for manufacturing maintenance data, enabling remote access. Big data technologies would allow industries to analyze the vast database and uncover the patterns, trends, and key performance indicators supporting data-driven maintenance decisions.
Top 4 Industrial Maintenance Trends in 2023
1. Advanced Condition Monitoring
With the rise in digitalization of maintenance processes, technologies like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), sensors, and asset condition monitoring as become more advanced and effective. Real-time asset health monitoring allows for proactive asset maintenance, reducing downtime and optimizing asset performance in organizations.
2. Addictive Manufacturing
Addictive manufacturing or 3D printing is one of the top trends in maintenance. It transforms the production and maintenance of spare parts for manufacturing maintenance. 3D printing enables organizations to produce customized replacement parts on demand, reducing inventory management costs and lead time.
3. Advanced Data analysis
The flow of vast data in industries while conducting maintenance tasks has created an advancement in data analytic techniques. The predictive maintenance models and machine learning algorithms identify patterns, detect issues, and provide insights for optimizing maintenance strategies.
4. Increased Utilization of Virtual Technologies
The technologies such as Virtual Reality(VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are now increasingly utilized in industrial maintenance. These technologies provide immersive training environments, virtual simulations, and remote access for asset maintenance tasks in multiple industries.
Which Industries are relying on Industrial Asset Maintenance
Maintenance is a critical process for various industries as it ensures the safety, reliability, and productivity of the assets or equipment. Here are some of the industries that heavily rely on industrial asset maintenance:
Manufacturing
Manufacturing industries heavily rely on assets for effective production processes—high demand for adequately maintaining these manufacturing assets results in industries depending highly on industrial maintenance. Proper maintenance of manufacturing equipment, machinery, and production lines empowers optimal asset performances and reduces maintenance costs and downtimes. The manufacturing industries follow regular maintenance operations such as calibrations, lubrications, preventive maintenance, and regular inspections to maximize productivity by enhancing asset performance.
Energy and Utilities
These industries involve electric grids, power generation plants, wastewater treatment facilities, and other critical infrastructures. It heavily depends on industrial asset maintenance to ensure continuous and reliable work. Maintenance operations are a crucial aspect of energy and utility sectors, as equipment downtime or breakdown can lead to power outages and critical service disruptions.
Oil and Gas
Oil and gas sectors are the most critical sectors of our global economy. It provides energy to almost every aspect of modern life, from transportation to manufacturing. However, it’s also a heavily regulated industry that requires a high degree of risk management and safety protocols. It is where industrial maintenance is critical. It ensures the smooth operation and reliability of assets utilized in the oil and gas industry. Equipment failure can lead to costly downtime and, even worse, hazardous accidents that can endanger workers’ lives. Effective industrial asset maintenance practices ensure safe operations while maintaining maximum efficiency and profitability within the oil and gas industry.
Transportation, logistics, chemical and pharmaceuticals, and health care are a few more industries that heavily rely on industrial asset maintenance.
How Fogwing Asset+ Helps for Industrial Maintenance Best Practices?
Fogwing Asset+ is a cloud-based CMMS Software that offers end-to-end solutions for industrial maintenance challenges. By enabling the power of AI, Machine Learning (ML), and Predictive Analytics, Fogwing Asset+ allows industries to monitor their equipment 24/7 and automatically schedule preventive maintenance and asset performance monitoring. Integrating Fogwing Asset+ into an organization’s workflow improves overall efficiency while reducing costs associated with machine breakdowns – a critical aspect of any successful business strategy in today’s competitive market.
- Fogwing Asset+ enables industries to reduce downtime by implementing predictive maintenance strategies.
- The real-time data from the Fogwing Asset+ provides insights into equipment health and alerts operators about potential malfunctions before they occur.
- Asset+ allows maintenance technicians to take corrective action proactively, reducing repair costs and minimizing unplanned downtime.
- Fogwing Asset+ helps industries optimize asset performance by analyzing machine data over time and understanding how machines operate under different conditions.
- With Fogwing Asset+, manufacturers can effectively decide when to perform maintenance activities such as cleaning or replacing parts.
Conclusion
To sum up, industrial maintenance is essential to any manufacturing or production business. It involves keeping the machinery and equipment in proper working condition to minimize downtime and increase productivity. Regular maintenance saves time and money and ensures a safe working environment for employees.
Softwares like Fogwing Asset+ provides a comprehensive solution for asset maintenance in industries by offering real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and remote asset management capabilities that allow businesses to optimize their operations. Investing in good-quality equipment and regular inspection schedules will reduce maintenance costs associated with unplanned downtimes while contributing towards increased output efficiency, promoting growth within your organization’s bottom line !
