CBM and PDM for the intelligent maintenance of an existing fleet

Uptime Engineering > blog > CBM and PDM for the intelligent maintenance of an existing fleet

Condition-based maintenance (CBM) and predictive maintenance (PDM) are technically and economically attractive goals in the context of digitization. In reality, however, there are considerable hurdles to overcome on the way to preventive maintenance. The following success criteria should be observed:

The sustainable economic benefits

Preventive maintenance makes economic sense if high entailed costs of failures are prevented. For the business case “maintenance optimization”, not only direct costs from downtimes and repair expenses must be considered, but also indirect costs resulting, for example, from delays in commuter traffic. This consideration results in a CBM/PDM potential for capital-intensive, networked industrial plants, for stand-alone plants such as wind farms, for seafaring and for public transport.

The specific requirements

The focus on high-risk and costly components keeps the scope of tasks for preventive processes compact. This enables the rapid implementation of the concrete goals with RoI potential to process maturity. The focus also results in a correspondingly compact – thus feasible – requirement for information procurement and the data process.

Realizing the benefits

Meanwhile, there is generally monitoring data of plants and vehicles. However, their quality must be ensured if reliable recommendations are to be derived from them. Because data is often stored on disconnected IT systems, the interoperability of these sources must also be realized.Operationally, there must be flexibility for event-based expenditures in the planned maintenance process. Finally, the practical and legal limitations of the solution space need to be examined.

The path to success in 3 steps:

The requirement analysis and the process design

A careful requirement analysis delivers the priority targets according to the criteria of the respective industry. For public transport this would be the increase in reliability; e.g.  measured as Mean Distance Between Failure (MDBF).  For off-shore wind turbines the greatest savings result from preventive parts replacement based on automated diagnostics. Along with the technical tasks, the necessary adjustments to the maintenance process are worked out with those responsible. Here, too, the industry-specific framework conditions and regulations must be observed.

The data process and software implementation

The currently often rudimentary data process is put on a solid organizational and technical basis, implemented, tested and rolled out.  The availability and quality assurance of the data are the central factors. Uptime HARVEST is the software for preventive maintenance. It provides reliable recommendations and warnings, which is crucial for acceptance in the change process. The software supports and guides the process from risk analysis to monitoring for a recommendation system to operational implementation in the Computerized Maintenance System (CMMS).

Process integration

CBM/PDM transfers the maintenance process from reactive to preventive. The time-based, planned process is supplemented by event-based measures. The maintenance quality is ensured by the ongoing monitoring of the systems or vehicles.  In the preventive process the predictability will become even higher than today, because of decreasing repair rates and the prewarning of failure risks. The difficult transition phase to preventive maintenance becomes a success if the process design is developed and implemented together with the maintenance team. This change process is developed by the Uptime Engineering consultants together with the customer’s technicians.

ADVANTAGES

Uptime arrow icon

Focus on risk and cost drivers for sustainable benefits

Uptime arrow icon

Rapid implementation in automated, scalable process

Uptime arrow icon

Process development with future users for high acceptance

Related Posts

The role of the digital twin in maintenance

The digital representation of the structure and hierarchy of a mechatronic system often seems like...

Is predictive maintenance a useful concept?

“Operate systems until there is a machine crash?” or “Try to predict the remaining lifespan...