The times are marked by competitiveness in business and this implies in reaching the best indicators in each sector, i.e., benchmarks, in parameters such as productivity, low rate of product rejection, delivery times, cost of materials, labor, logistics efficiency, etc.
Industrial competitiveness is achieved by taking care of the set of activities performed, whether they are production, maintenance, logistics, people training and motivation, among many others.
Not only take care, but also set performance goals and seek continuous improvement because what is already good today, can improve and become a reference as the best sectorial practice or, on the contrary, be a reason for waste, increased costs, and loss of efficiency.
Predictive maintenance is at the core of global industry issues due to the opportunity to reduce costs and improve competitiveness. In this text we list some problems avoided with it.
1 – REDUCED USEFUL LIFE OF MACHINES AND EQUIPMENT
Reliability experts use a graphical representation called the bathtub curve to describe the life cycle of a product or piece of equipment.
It is the manufacturer’s responsibility to ensure that all materials and components used in a given piece of equipment are suitable for the proper functioning of the machinery throughout its life cycle.
However, there is a likelihood of early life failures, or infant mortality in equipment, caused by defective materials, design or assembly errors.
After this phase the random failures of the normal life period comes and finally the equipment enters the period of increasing failures, due to wear and and exhaustion of parts and components.
The consequences of an asset’s failure determine its criticality and maintenance plan.
Preventive maintenance, following the best maintenance practices and the equipment manufacturer’s indications, generates a certain level of reliability, but does not prevent its breakdown.
The application of various predictive maintenance techniques is what will increase the reliability and availability, and consequently the life span of industrial machinery.
The most competitive industries make escalating use of them.
2 – INCREASED RISK TO EMPLOYEE SAFETY
Regulatory norms, such as Norm NR-10 and NR-12, define principles, conditions, and protection measures to ensure employees’ health and physical integrity, as well as establish minimum requirements for the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases.
MEETING THESE STANDARDS AND KEEPING HIGH PRODUCTIVITY IS NOT A SIMPLE EQUATION!
With the technology available to monitor the health of the machinery through sensors, it is already possible to reconcile the safety of the maintainer with the anticipation of a possible problem that the machinery or its component may present.
3 – INCREASED OVERTIME AND REWORK
As the maintenance team gets to know the machinery and its components, supported by statistical and historical data – provided by records of failures and various maintenance events, as well as by predictive techniques – proactive maintenance activities are scheduled and performed at the best opportunity, without running the risk of breakdown.
Knowing the tendency of machinery failures, a greater planning of activities can come into play.
Parts that would be exchanged due to the time factor may have their use extended.
Maintenance labor, measured in man-hours, that would be used in urgent breakdown activities, or unnecessary disassembly, is directed to maintaining the reliability of the machinery in order to produce the expected quality, improving the overall effectiveness of the equipment.
Unnecessary maintenance is a potential factor in later failures. So in addition to using labor where it is not needed, it also creates the risk of rework. A lose-lose situation.
4 – HIGHER COST WITH SPARE PARTS
Just as the correct combination of maintenance strategies generates greater labor productivity, even improving the morale of the work environment, parts are exchanged only when necessary, reducing replacement costs.
5- HIGHER RISK OF LOSING FUTURE SALES
Maintenance in the Brazilian industry still has an exaggerated focus on corrective maintenance, that is, let it break in order to fix it.
The surveys are few and indicate over 40% spending on corrective maintenance.
This type of positioning, besides ruining the competitiveness of the industry that competes with those who apply strategies that combine the best maintenance approach, exposes the organization to a higher risk of losing future sales.
If you can’t trust the availability of the production line, how can you trust the production capacity, the delivery times, and the quality of the product?
How can you trust the financial stability of the organization, living with these events?
For research institutes such as MarketsandMarkets, TechSCIResearch and IoTAnalytics, the global predictive maintenance market from 2016 to 2021-2022 will be between $4.9 billion, $7.9 billion and $11 billion, respectively.
In the most conservative estimate, annual growth is 28%, up from $1.4 billion in 2016.
According to MarketsandMarkets, the manufacturing vertical should have the largest share of this pie.
Manufacturers are viewing maintenance as a strategic business activity, as reducing maintenance cost should help increase profitability.
What does this mean? Prepare your industry, so you don’t get left behind, because the world is heading in that direction.