For manufacturers, the internet of things (IoT) has brought a digital lean, leading to increased automation and improved efficiency. While IoT supports many areas in manufacturing, such as managing inventory and monitoring production cycles, that help enhance efficiency, it is IoT-based predictive maintenance (or simply, IoT predictive maintenance) that helps save a lot of abrupt costs.
Unlike reactive maintenance, the main objective of predictive maintenance is to enable preemptive planning to avoid unexpected equipment breakdowns—if you know when a specific machine needs to be serviced, it makes it easier to plan resources (personnel, spare parts, etc.) for the maintenance work. IoT helps a lot in enhancing the precision of predictive maintenance.
IoT predictive maintenance systems analyze machine operating conditions in real time to forecast when and how a machine might malfunction. It involves the use of sensors to collect equipment data and software to analyze the collected data and generate reports.
In this article, you’ll understand the role IoT plays in predictive maintenance within a manufacturing site. We’ll also look at the benefits of IoT predictive maintenance and how to get the ball rolling in your business.
What is the role of IoT in predictive maintenance?
IoT-based predictive maintenance involves the collection of machine data (such as operating temperature, supply voltage, current, and vibration) through sensors and wireless transmission of the collected data to a cloud-based centralized data storage platform in real time.
Maintenance teams then gather data from the centralized data storage system and analyze it using predictive analytics programs and machine learning (ML) algorithms to derive actionable insights.
Benefits of IoT-based predictive maintenance
Manufacturers that embrace IoT-based predictive maintenance gain several benefits from the technology within. Let’s look at the benefits and understand them a little better.
- Reduced maintenance costs: Every machine requires maintenance but an unexpected machine failure haywires your maintenance budget. IoT-based predictive maintenance enables you to schedule optimal inspection and maintenance routines to avoid unplanned downtime.
- Enhanced asset reliability: Unplanned downtime due to unexpected equipment failure results in reduced machine utilization that drives down profitability. IoT-based predictive maintenance allows efficient use of machines by enabling to forecast and avoid machine failures.
- Increased life of machines: As IoT-based predictive maintenance allows you to monitor equipment in real time, you can accurately identify components that need urgent replacement. You can schedule maintenance and repairs on time, thereby extending the life of your machines.
- Improved worker safety and compliance: IoT-based predictive maintenance enables you to monitor operational conditions (such as temperature, RPM, or voltage) and flag potentially hazardous precursors that may pose risks to workers if left unresolved.
Steps to kick start IoT-based predictive maintenance
By now, it’s clear that IoT-based predictive maintenance helps extend the life of assets, reduce asset downtime, and bring down unplanned maintenance routines. You also know what components you’ll need for building an IoT-based predictive maintenance system.
To initiate IoT-based predictive maintenance in your manufacturing business, identify assets that need predictive maintenance and know that not all equipment would need predictive maintenance. Think about what would be the impact of zero or minimal downtime of a certain machine/equipment on your bottom line. This will help you identify the right assets that are suitable for IoT-based predictive maintenance. You can also rank the identified assets on the basis of their past downtime incidents and the business loss they led to. This will help you kick start IoT-based predictive maintenance with the most critical assets.
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