Old-School Maintenance Management
Historically, it was possible to maintain an RCM program using simple documents, pen and paper, and schedule checks. Though these methods were effective to some extent, they are accompanied by several problems. Many problems occur when specifically recognized, so problems may pop out when unexpected, and having them solved would eventually cost more. Also, maintenance teams may not manage a priority system well, thus making it difficult to efficiently use available resources. Also, there is no possibility for operational decision-making to be involved with the health and performance of real-time assets.
The Rise of CMMS
For this reason, an entirely new technological development called Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) came into existence. CMMS software transforms maintenance management using the computer to store and manage information and flows. This functionality has different types: work order management, inventory management, PM planning and scheduling, and history management. However, with CMMS, there are significant enhancements, but data inputs are drawn manually, and there are time-based reviews that do not cater to real-time display.
How IoT Transforms Maintenance Management?
In Maintenance Management, IoT’s primary function is to convert maintenance management into real-time asset monitoring and enhance the effectiveness of the response by the maintenance teams. From IoT devices, maintenance managers are notified instantly of a failure or if the performance deviates from the required norms. This makes it possible for organizations to move from corrective maintenance to preventive maintenance, where insight and artificial intelligence predict potential equipment failure so that something can be done about it before it happens.
Moreover, IoT improves decision-making regarding maintenance operations by collecting and analyzing large amounts of operational data. This data can then be used to develop trends or patterns that can help the maintenance teams understand what is most important based on the health and use of the assets. Therefore, IoT equips managers with the right information to ensure the reliability of equipment and its maintenance appropriately.
IoT integration provides structures for tracking other core maintenance KPIs, such as MTBF and MTTR, when implementing Smart Factory. They show how well the equipment performs, how optimally they are being utilized, and how efficient the maintenance function is. These data analysis outcomes provide a detailed picture of maintenance processes and allow the company to avoid excessive overhead spending, work out the rational usage of resources, and prevent unplanned idle time.
Advantages of Applying IoT in Relation to Maintenance Management
Predictive Maintenance
The selected IoT sensors mounted on the equipment can help track important parameters such as temperature, vibration, and pressure. The maintenance teams can understand when a machine will likely develop a major fault through this real-time data. This type of maintenance, also referred to as preventive, or prophylactic, has its benefits: To reduce instances of unanticipated equipment breakdowns, organizations should address problem antecedently. Moreover, due to the possibility of defining when maintenance should be done exactly, unnecessary interventions are excluded, and resources are used rationally. In addition, regular and proactive actions lead to improved safety and longer equipment durability.
Enhanced Asset Management
IoT allows for the tracking of asset conditions, but its most significant advantage is monitoring performance parameters. Maintenance information from diverse sensors is gained and summarized, such as identifying problems before they become major issues, monitoring the plant’s performance accurately, and making informed decisions.
Operational Efficiency
Concerning the case of facilities’ maintenance, IoT integration can help improve the process to the extent of cutting its operational costs. Automating work orders based on sensor data, monitoring, and diagnostics, allocating resources efficiently, and minimizing human errors through process automation IoT enables technical teams to be more productive.
Key Features Enabled by IoT
Real-Time Monitoring
Some IoT sensors can be fitted into equipment to monitor important attributes regularly, including temperature, vibration, and pressure. This real-time data assists the maintenance teams in gaining critical and timely information about their assets to identify if they are developing problems with their functioning. Thus, they can foresee some problems before they result in breakdowns and help the equipment last longer and have less time off.
Data Analytics
The huge amount of data being generated by IoTs can be processed by sophisticated machine learning techniques that will provide a new perspective to the teams in control of maintenance. By so doing, they can forecast breakdowns accurately and schedule their maintenance activities optimally to have optimal resource utilization to undertake all maintenance processes.
Inventory Management
IoT also involves voluntary inventory control since it allows real-time visibility of how consumables such as parts and supplies are being used. By using inventory tracking to monitor the consumption of the inventory in use by the maintenance teams, it becomes easy to order more stock, avoid waiting for the right time on the calendar, and monitor inventory without having to interrupt operations: maximizing inventory usage, minimizing stockouts, and automating the ordering process so that stockouts do not delay operations.
