Predictive Maintenance

Predictive Maintenance: A World of Zero Unplanned Downtime

For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Traditional rhyme

Nothing grabs the attention of C-suite executives more effectively than talk of profits, which explains the current buzz around predictive maintenance.

Geeks and gear heads across the landscape of heavy industry have been hearing the siren song of predictive maintenance for decades. The basic idea is simple: with the right blend of math and sensors, machines are fixed before they break, valuable resources are spared, and unplanned downtime is rendered obsolete.  But until recently, the processes that would have made predictive maintenance possible either didn’t exist or were far too expensive to be considered practical.

Today, the situation looks very different. The combination of advanced analytics, low-cost sensors, and the Internet of Things (IoT) promises to elevate maintenance from a cost center to a profit center. True believers like Mark Grabb, the technology leader for analytics at GE Software, see predictive maintenance as a spark with the power to ignite an economic revolution.

From his perspective, broader adoption of predictive maintenance principles will enable companies to provide a far wider range of products ...