Maintenance can be a complex undertaking, requiring thorough planning and an astute understanding of a facility’s risk profile. This is particularly true of high-risk facilities. Maintenance does not occur in a ‘vacuum’ and can result in costly downtimes if it is unexpected or unplanned. Even planned maintenance can lead to lengthy downtimes resulting in huge losses. For example, oil refineries in the US alone lose an estimated $47 billion from 213,000 hours of downtime each year. What is required is a maintenance regime that is comprehensive, yet unobtrusive. This is where predictive maintenance comes in.
What Is Predictive Maintenance?
Even the most updated and expensive machinery and equipment can be unpredictable. Increasingly sophisticated assets require maintenance that is as responsive and intelligent as possible. The precise prediction of when assets may need maintenance can greatly streamline a maintenance department’s workload and its ability to respond to the complexities of modern machinery. Predictive maintenance (hereafter also referred to as PdM) provides that solution.
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