Within the manufacturing industry, every organization’s maintenance needs are bound to be distinctive in some way. The status of the machines within this industry is directly related to the success of the organizations that own them. Thus, developing a maintenance strategy that provides some form of benefit or advantage becomes imperative for these organizations. The way in which most organizations approach maintenance is split between predictive and preventive maintenance. This post is dedicated to analyzing the differences between these two strategies.

Preventive maintenance has reigned over the manufacturing industry for some time now. This strategy is founded on a calendar driven maintenance approach, meaning performing maintenance on all pieces of equipment in a fleet at set intervals throughout the year. In most cases, these intervals are based on age and overall run time of any piece of equipment. The older and more time spent running, the more frequent the maintenance intervals for example. The opposite could be said of a younger, less ran machine.

Predictive maintenance, on the other hand, is a newer strategy that has begun creeping its way into the manufacturing industry. This strategy is much more dynamic than its preventive counterpart in that it uses data collected directly from an organization’s equipment to determine the optimal maintenance schedule. So, rather than having set intervals for maintenance on all pieces of equipment throughout the year, this approach determines when maintenance is truly necessary. While this strategy is much more efficient in regards to deploying maintenance resources, it is far more expensive to implement than a preventive maintenance strategy.

However, while the costs for these systems are often outrageous, it’s becoming increasingly easier to have them implemented into any piece of equipment an organization has. This is largely in part due to the ever-expanding nature of the Internet of Things. The more technologies that continue to become connected to the IoT, the more the capabilities of these systems can continue to evolve. The analysis and reporting of these systems are unmatched in regards to predicting failure and scheduling maintenance.

However, as with anything that seems to be a sure thing, simply integrating these predictive maintenance systems into your organization is not a foolproof way to improve your organization. In fact, integrating these systems mean even more change for your employees to keep up with. Re-training long-lasting personnel with a completely different outlook on maintenance is bound to be a challenge. Not only this, new employees with next to no knowledge regarding these systems wouldn’t be able to latch on to an existing employee to learn the ropes while these systems are so fresh. If your organization has the available capital and the utmost trust in your employees, with enough dedication these systems can prove beneficial.

Developing a maintenance strategy that is right for your business can be a real challenge. If you’re struggling to weigh the options, be sure to check out the infographic that’s paired alongside this post for more helpful information. Courtesy of Industrial Service Solutions.