When we started selling products, we discovered they tended to break and needed to be repaired or replaced. And so began the evolution of equipment maintenance.
We quickly learned three things:
- We can make money repairing stuff.
- Customers hate to pay to have their property repaired.
- Customers hate being unable to use the element while it is broken or repaired.
These observations, and our experiences, led us to two critical conclusions:
- No matter how much equipment maintenance you do, it is impossible to eliminate every failure.
- The end-user cost of breakdown maintenance usually is more than any other type of maintenance.
These two conclusions resulted in the equipment maintenance management evolution shown here, where each service level provides increased customer value:
Breakdown maintenance – the most basic form of equipment maintenance
This means, “When a product fails, fix it.” This is purely reactive and is like playing whack-a-mole; you fix something, and then something else breaks, so it goes. And each time you have to select the product, it cannot be used. In many B2B situations, the cost of lost revenue from not being able to use the equipment far exceeds the actual repair costs. Today, informed buyers do not want to operate in this mode – their jobs are at risk.
Preventative maintenance
PM techniques generally are either routine or time-based. With this model, a product is inspected, adjusted, and calibrated after a set time or a fixed amount of use (routine). For example, your car manual may suggest an oil change every 5,000 miles or six months. The theory is that this service will prevent future unscheduled failures. The problem with this approach is that it does not consider the actual use history of each product. For example, a New York City taxi creates more wear and tear in 5,000 miles than a minivan driven around a typical middle-class suburb for the same distance.
Condition-based maintenance
Fix it when it breaks. This technique takes advantage of more modern instrumentation to indicate when an individual product is likely to need maintenance at a future time. For example, in all relatively new cars, there is a “service engine soon” warning light that signals when the onboard computer detects either an actual fault (low tire pressure) or a potential fault (low coolant level). The theory is that the warning will cause the operator to go to a qualified service center conveniently, where all the fault codes will be read and investigated until the “real fault” is identified. Depending on the actual nature of the fault, the car may be repaired immediately or scheduled at a time convenient for the owner and the repair shop.
Predictive maintenance – currently the most advanced form of equipment maintenance
This is condition-based equipment maintenance on steroids. This method works with today’s highly complex, intelligent subsystems integrated into a product or network of products. Ethoughtfulgent component includes a computer that communicates to a central computer, either embedded in the product or located remotely. They communicate over the Internet using machine-to-machine protocols – led Internet of Things (IoT). In many cases today, and undoubtedly many more in the future, the central computer monitors subsystem status and actual use. This information is analyzed using highly advanced algorithms that rely on the combined history of similar products to project when failures will most likely occur. The system then schedules a maintenance appointment and ensures that a qualified technician with the correct spare part(s) and tools will also be available. Working this way, the maintenance work can get done before a failure occurs and at a time that minimizes the downtime of the process that uses the equipment. For example, if a piece of equipment in a semiconductor fabrication line needs a major repair, the tool owner can also schedule other deferred repairs on other equipment. The line is down only once for required maintenance on several tools!
Related article: The Value of Predictive Maintenance: Equipment Uptime and Peace of Mind
Conclusion
If your business is not headed toward M2M and IoT, you will find that the leading-edge customers are not even considering you. You will be relegated to becoming a commodity.
About Middlesex Consulting
Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals with the primary goal of helping capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. Middlesex Consulting continues to provide superior solutions to meet the needs of its clients by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing, Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization implement predictive maintenance capabilities and create more value for your customers, please contact us or check out some free articles and white papers here.