Smart Maintenance

Next level smart maintenance

Maintaining machines using a planned maintenance strategy at fixed times is a good first step to increase the reliability of machines. It’s a better strategy than a reactive maintenance strategy: “we’ll fix it when it breaks”. The next step is a Condition Based Maintenance strategy. This strategy is based on real-time monitoring of critical machine parts. As soon as the conditions are going to be reached, the person responsible for maintenance is informed and maintenance can be carried out in time to prevent downtime.

The goal of a condition-based maintenance strategy is to detect a problem as quickly as possible (point P in the graph). This gives the maintenance team the opportunity to schedule maintenance at a time that is least disruptive to the production teams. This timely insight can be obtained through the real-time collection of machine data.

Savings to be achieved with this condition-based maintenance strategy include higher productivity, lower maintenance costs and reduced spare parts inventory.

It can seem challenging and expensive to reach the next level of maintenance by adopting a data-driven approach. But as Itho Daalderop has discovered, it doesn’t have to be that way. It can already be realized with small investments. This strategy can also be applied to older machines. The adage for a condition-based maintenance strategy is to start small and build it up step by step. Here you can discover how Itho Daalderop achieved this.