Condition Monitoring (CM) of industrial installations enables you to implement a predictive maintenance strategy, and is nowadays a common method of preventing failure of critical equipment while maximizing uptime, improve performance, and achieve operational excellence. However, one of the sad realities associated to this extraordinary rate of change is that business processes have not adequately kept pace with the advances in technology. Thus we unfortunately have the situation whereby the capabilities of many CM technologies exceed the capabilities of maintenance organizations to fully utilize them. Most companies with CM programs, are not realizing the full benefits of their investments. In this article we will outline the following key business opportunities and trends which are driving change in the industry:

  • Integration of multiple predictive technologies
  • Increase of outsourcing
  • Emphasis on information over data
  • Greater use of the Internet

Integration of multiple predictive technologies

CM is the use of information obtained by methodically collecting and analysing vital data, obtained from advanced measurement technologies, in order to determine equipment condition, and potentially predict failure. There are many predictive technologies available amongst which the most widely adopted are: vibration analysis, infrared thermography, oil & wear debris analysis, airborne ultrasound, and motor current analysis. Usually, it is not possible to get the complete picture from just one isolated technology, while the combined results of several technologies can very accurately determine failure modes at an earlier stage, so that the most cost effective and timely repair interventions can be planned. When an organization can convert early identification of defects into action, that avoids or reduces the impact of a progressive damage produced by equipment failures, the maintenance efficiency is maximized and the possibility of catastrophic failures during critical operations significantly reduced.

To be able to make the right decisions at the right time analysts and technicians need to become multi-skilled, rather than being limited to deal with just a single technology.

Groups like MIMOSA are working on integrated technology standard definitions, however, more work must still be done in this area.

Increase of outsourcing

CM programs can be performed by in-house data collection technicians and analysts or by external contractors. Not surprisingly, hybrid programs employ some combination of the two, using, for example, own personnel to manually perform data collection associated to routine machinery inspections, while renting technology and diagnosis services. The reasons for outsourcing in CM are many, although the most important is the difficulty to keep up with new technology and maintain the special skills required. Suppliers of outsourcing services promise better reliability at a lower cost.

Having said that is not a surprise to find that outsourcing of CM is on an upward trend, but in a manner much more integrated and cooperative than the basic outsourcing contracts in place today. Nevertheless to be able to choose the right CM partner it is crutial to have into account the following key aspects:

  • Provides expertise in multiple CM technologies

  • Possesses the size and depth to efficiently manage a sustainable program

  • Delivers high quality and in-time machine condition assessments

  • Coaches and transfers the necessary knowledge for your organization to confidently carry on the necessary actions

By the use of a cloud based CM platform it is possible to easily put in place and coordinate maintenance departments with external providers, to effectively plan and schedule services, as well as conduct root cause analysis and strategy optimization. Telediagnosis monitoring centers could receive work orders or data collected via a cloud based maintenance platform. They could then coordinate their work force to best manage the tasks over all of the sites under surveillance. In today's world where profit is highly dependent on the ability of corporations to control their operating costs, this can prove to be extremely beneficial as a key factor for success.

Emphasis on information over data

Over the years, as a result of outsourced CM services, maintenance departments are traditionally spammed by large amounts of data, usually in the form of paper or electronic documents in text, spreadsheet or pdf format. This massive volume of data is cumbersome and difficult to process manually. Maintenance departments are no longer suffering from a lack of data—they’re suffering from a lack of the right data. They need the right relevant information to effectively define the strategic actions to be undertaken on the assets in order to make the biggest impact on the overall plant reliability. The current generation of CM software was designed for functionality, but the next generation must also be designed for data analysis, to proactively provide decision-support information to maintenance departments.

So, the next opportunity for improvement or challenge in the field of CM and machinery diagnosis is to be able to collect data spanning the entire factory or production system and automatically organize and evaluate it to pinpoint maintenance departments into the right direction, helping them to focus their resources into the most important issues, in order to maximize the impact of their work.

Asset management programs start by collecting data from the assets. Once that information has been absorbed, the CM software gives operators the tools to be proactive instead of reactive. The result is a substantial increase in reliability, as operators move from fighting fires to performing highly planned preventive and predictive maintenance tasks. The benefits increase over time, since as the system gathers more and more data, the accuracy and relevance of the results will grow significantly.

Greater use of the Internet

Most plants today involve people and services companies that are located away from industrial sites. Currently, a majority of these people remain being isolated islands of information, largely due to the lack of software tools to facititate their communication and integration. The use of cloud-based condition monitoring platforms would help to connect isolated people and data sets, removing the remaining barriers to information visibility and collaboration, as well as providing a coherent and unified working procedure approach. The result of this new way of collaboration comes in the form of an improved maintenance performance that maximizes their business value.

Conclusions

Manufacturing and industrial facilities operations rely on critical assets, thus maintaining these assets is crucial to uptime and performance. To assess the condition of these critical equipment, it is necessary to apply the most adequate predictive technologies specific to each case. CM programs offer complementary strengths in controlling the root causes of machine failure and in identifying and understanding the nature of abnormal conditions.

Integrating the whole set of CM data available onto a common platform greatly improves the diagnostic capabilities. However, there may be an even more important benefits to this process, since at the same time it breaks down the traditional organizational barriers that have kept each group of people focused on their respective technologies or areas of expertise.

When considering options for the implementation of a CM program, we should always ask ourselves if outsourcing of reliability and maintenance services can accomplish the given targets faster and better than our own organization, delivering accurate and timely machinery diagnostics.

The key question is becoming less about whether to monitor and more about how far and wide the CM data should extend. Cloud-based collaboration and delivery model provides instantly accessible information needed for insightful decision making capable of lowering maintenance costs and improving industrial reliability.

As always, what is required more than anything else is end user acceptance and understanding of the benefits of such technologies. Once this is achieved the industrial maintenance domain will be ready take one step more in its endless pursue of efficiency.