This article was taken in its entirety from http://www.manufacturing.net/CTL/article/CA6311950.html

'Excuse me, I'm not feeling well: slowing here, running hot there. A few non-critical errors are cropping up, and my cutting edge is getting dull. Don't push me past 93% capacity, if you're relying on me. At 85% though, I guarantee I can last another week before I call in sick. May I please e-mail the doctor now with a list of my needs?'

Few human assets provide that kind of information. Yet, if you're not getting that level of predictive intelligence—and more—from your machines, you're wasting time and money on scheduled maintenance and unplanned outages—and you don't have what you need to optimize production. You're bidding on jobs based on your best guess of current production costs and may not discover actual production cost until you're so committed that prospects for recovery are dim.

Better, simpler designs, more sensors, diagnostics, communications, and software predictive analysis tools and related training ensure machine health, safety, and productivity of machine operators and the connected supply chain.

Horn says:

Data in context is information; 'Integrating process control with vibration monitoring is the complete picture of machine health,' Horn says.

Networked interfaces—wired or wireless—enable proactive communications with operators, maintenance staff, material suppliers, and original equipment manufacturers. OEMs, with customer permission, can communicate with the machines, gathering information to ensure optimal performance, help facilitate repairs, and improve future designs.

PPL Susquehanna LLC had remote Internet-based troubleshooting help from Berkeley Process Control for automated welding equipment processing canisters of spent nuclear fuel. A service contract for the Berkeley Automated Welding System provided remote real-time connectivity—through an enabled TS-5112 touchscreen and secure Internet connection—to show the user interface and process parameters.

Berkeley engineers could remotely view and actuate machine motion, change and view parameters, and navigate and run through diagnostics with PPL staff, faster than phone-based troubleshooting. An intermittent connection at an I/O terminal block was identified as the problem source, saving at least two days compared to dispatching a technician, the company says.

Proactive services
Such machine-to-machine efforts (M2M) are among 'main technologies being applied today to help companies move from a reactive- to a proactive-service model,' says Peter Fowler, a vice president for Siemens wireless modules. M2M technology allows manufacturers to remotely connect to and monitor the machines they are contracted to service, Fowler says, increasing visibility into equipment performance and real-time notification of needed maintenance services before the machines go down.

'One major challenge in industry today is that the company responsible for outsourced maintenance is often not at the plant, but rather is dispatching and doing remote maintenance for several different customers,' complicating connections.

Cellular wireless technologies such as 'Siemens Mobile, through its partnership with nPhase, allows product manufacturers and the companies that service equipment to run their businesses proactively versus reactively. They can intelligently dispatch technicians where and when appropriate, reducing service calls and overall costs while improving service and customer satisfaction.'

'Most factories are locally networked; there's a need to expand connectivity to companies responsible for maintaining and servicing the equipment,' says Fowler; 'such methods are far more productive in achieving the result—greater efficiency at reasonable cost.'

Adoption of new PdM technologies is poised to explode as monitoring systems are integrated with a machine's control system, says Chris DeFilippo, sound and vibration product manager, National Instruments. 'Programmable automation controllers (PACs) are increasingly deployed in intelligent maintenance systems,' he suggests, since they already include diagnostics with control.

PACs add flexibility to predictive maintenance, since a PAC user isn't constrained by a particular dedicated system's capabilities and can choose a list of appropriate variables to measure: vibration, thermal imaging, ultrasonics, power quality, and other parameters, DeFilippo suggests. At a local decentralized level, a PAC has the processing capabilities to perform advanced analysis, such as spectral analysis, multiple order tracking, level measurement, and alarm triggering, he says.

Why wait? To implement online monitoring, Horn suggests, begin by looking at best practices, existing process knowledge, and a little theory:

Some monitored information is well understood with documented benefits, Horn adds, but correlating process conditions with measurements will show a previously unseen problem and enable a path of continual improvement.

PdM paybacks/benefits vary by industry and by company, say Raman and Konstantinovsky; it has been a big challenge to readily quantify the benefits from this program. Generally PdM program cost savings is bigger compared to a PM or RM program. Studies by Emerson Process Management, Raman and Konstantinovsky say, indicate that if PdM's cost multiple is 1x, then PM equals 5x, and reactive maintenance could exceed 15x. Cost savings can come from avoiding downtime as well.

On average, unplanned downtime cost of a typical process industry 'can represent 1-3% of revenues and 30-40% of profits annually; for large capital equipment, costs may be 1-3% of asset value per year,' says SmartSignal's John Kerastas, as cited by Raman and Konstantinovsky. Another payback source is avoidance of unnecessary preventive maintenance and the associated costs of materials, labor, and overhead, they say, reducing maintenance inventory and associated carrying costs, which can be 25% of inventory value.

Independent surveys indicate the following industrial average savings resulted from initiation of a functional PdM program:

Raman and Konstantinovsky add that cost savings can be much higher since there is significant benefit from reduction/elimination in secondary equipment damage from a PdM program. PdM reduces unnecessary maintenance. Labor costs can also be reduced due to fewer work orders for maintenance, they say. Insurance premiums can also be reduced with PdM programs. PdM can also be viewed as a safety initiative by shop labor, increasing worker morale positively impacting production, quality, tardiness and such. According to Raman and Konstantinovsky, these contribute 10-30% additional savings.