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Maintenance going more digital

INTERNET OF THINGS Digital technologies used for prescriptive maintenance methods identify possible equipment failure risks

INTERNET OF THINGS Digital technologies used for prescriptive maintenance methods identify possible equipment failure risks

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23rd June 2017

     

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In today’s highly competitive production and mining environments, reactive and preventive maintenance have become unsustainable, says consultancy firm Onpro Consulting.

“Companies who cling to these traditional models stand to lose not just income but also market share,” it states, advocating a combination of predictive and prescriptive maintenance.

Traditional maintenance is a less viable option when the assets in question are pivotal to production continuity. These assets are often large, expensive machines that account for the bulk of the total investment in the manufacturing or production facility. Therefore, taking these machines off-line for maintenance is risky in terms of components replacement costs and the financial impact on a company’s income statement.

Reactive maintenance refers to fixing equipment only if it is broken, says Onpro Consulting, highlighting that predictive and prescriptive maintenance are viable alternatives.

“Unfortunately, companies took decades to realise that a simple part failure could result in more severe damage to assets, extended downtime, unwanted production stoppages and, ultimately, loss of income.”

However, reactive maintenance is still practised, mainly owing to production pressures or budgetary constraints.

Preventive Maintenance Pullback

Preventive maintenance follows the asset manufacturer’s service schedule, maintaining parts of machinery before they break.

An added benefit of preventive maintenance is that it can be planned for quiet times, after hours or on weekends, when production will not be adversely affected.

However, it is a costly solution because assets earmarked for maintenance might be far from failing and production can continue for extended periods without the risk of failures or production losses occurring at a later stage.

“Resources are often squandered and expensive parts are bought unnecessarily – costs no company wants to bear,” Onpro Consulting stresses.

“Servicing and repairs can easily represent 15% to 60% of the total cost of goods produced, depending on the industry or sector. “For example, in South Africa, mining is the largest sector – contributing about 9% of the national gross domestic product, with maintenance consuming 20% to 50% of total operational expenditure.”

With such high costs, it is troubling that traditional maintenance management is still so widespread, says Onpro Consulting, whose surveys indicate that up to 33% of maintenance spend is due to ineffective or poorly managed maintenance programmes.

Value and Improvement

Worldwide, operational and senior management agree that an effective maintenance programme contributes significantly to an organisation’s long- term profitability. “It has also become a priority when considering a company’s performance strategy,” notes Onpro Consulting.

Maintenance is no longer seen as just another cost centre, but rather an inseparable part of the production function that adds value through longer-term reliability and availability.

Timely maintenance and repair to keep machines and equipment performing within their design capacity and specification are now an unquestionable boon to business, making planned maintenance as a business enabler the new norm.

However, Onpro Consulting states that many companies still live in the dark ages of production, employing outdated thinking and strategies.

To reduce cost inefficiencies and increase operational efficiency, the company recommends entrepreneurial thinking, which entails extensive research into the latest maintenance models available and engaging with experts that can provide guidance along the way.

“Such an investment is a fraction of the cost savings and is clearly offset by production gains and lower maintenance costs.”

Better Strategies
Onpro Consulting encourages predictive maintenance methods, which, along with prescriptive maintenance, offer the potential for a lean maintenance strategy and extended asset availability, inevitably improving production continuity, competitiveness and profitability.

Predictive maintenance offers a maintenance-on-demand solution by using a range of well-defined methodologies and proven tools to test the condition of machines and equipment while they are running or without having to open up the asset.

These methodologies and tools include vibration monitoring, thermography and lubricant testing, while the procedures involved are generally nonintrusive and do not disrupt production.

With the data gathered, predictions can be made as to which components are heading for failure and when. This enables a company to plan maintenance around items that are at risk or failing, rather than blindly servicing all assets along preventive maintenance lines.

Predictive maintenance takes lead times in account and the best time to act to prevent component failures. This means assets will not incur unnecessary maintenance costs and service technicians can be deployed more effectively.

Traditional predictive maintenance can be carried out by service technicians using hand-held sensors, but, Onpro Consulting states, digital predictive maintenance technologies provide far greater benefits.

The company adds that modern predictive maintenance programmes are backed by specialised management software that provides maintenance scheduling and asset analysis. In many cases, machine learning is employed to build asset risk profiles and predict failure against its performance patterns.

To take predictive maintenance one step further, the company suggests employing prescriptive maintenance that uses the Internet of Things, big data and cloud computing technologies to suggest the most effective maintenance strategies and asset maintenance priorities.

Such maintenance systems can be prohibitively expensive, but, to save costs, computer power technologies service providers offer pay-per-use or subscription services.

This offers the benefits of prescriptive maintenance without the cost of acquiring new computer systems software, or hiring technical experts to use and maintain them.

While predictive maintenance methods forecast what will happen, prescriptive maintenance methods predict what should happen.

Prescriptive maintenance systems analyse maintenance history to identify and manage the asset’s reliability risk profiles that could adversely affect plant or business operations.

Its computations involve the availability of ‘cleansed’ operational data, analytics and machine learning applied to critical assets to gain a better understanding of its performance behaviours.

This analysis is then operationalised for continuous improvements to business maintenance practices.

Therefore, specifically, its goal is to improve asset reliability and reduce inefficiencies across maintenance activities and cost structures. Whereas predictive maintenance can be performed by humans, prescriptive maintenance is achieved through intricate configurations and computations.

Onpro Consulting says technologies have reached a tipping point where the cost-to-benefit ratio is no longer restrictive, because these methods provide a substantial return on investment.

“However, selecting a predictive or prescriptive maintenance platform is similar to choosing an enterprise resource system, which means the wrong option can forfeit critical advantages,” the company states, adding that, with adequate forethought and proper business analytics, success is assured.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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