Why more maintenance isn’t the answer?

The effectiveness of having a proper preventive maintenance schedule can never be overlooked. It boosts productivity and basically avoids some major breakdowns. This concept took a big leap when Toyota Motor Maintenance (TMM) introduced its lean manufacturing concept to the world. It was so much effective that Preventive Maintenance became one of the competitive advantages of the company as it provides Operational Effectiveness to the process.

Why Preventive Maintenance?

The concept of maintenance can be understood with one of the oldest quotes: “Prevention is better than cure”. In the industrial terms, cure is analogues to replacement of the machine or a faulty part of it and prevention is analogues to maintenance. The main purpose of maintenance is to ensure maximum efficiency of the operations. Routine inspections, lubrication and cleaning bring out some unnoticed abnormalities that can hinder the process. A good maintenance schedule involves continuous/periodic planning and requires organization-wide involvement.

How much maintenance is a good enough maintenance?

The importance is given to the maintenance to the amount that it is one of the important parameters while calculating KPIs for the employees at some places. However, no one knows the optimum amount of maintenance needed. No one knows if they are utilizing the full potential of the machine or exposing it more to the wear and tear. To be on the top of that imitable operational excellence, every organization increased their maintenance frequency, resulting in added resource allocation. The machines are being opened and exposed to the outer environment, the parts are being replaced even before their full potential use and more labor is allocated to do the maintenance. Therefore, losing the big picture of concentrating on only the critical issues.

Modern Solution

With technological advancement, there are some solutions developed in this arena too. Thanks to AI and IoT, there is no need to do preventive maintenance periodically anymore because you have to. The system monitors the process carefully, remembers the breakdown pattern and notify you in advance of any unnoticed/undetectable abnormalities in the process.

Who is providing such advanced system?

Quite frankly, a lot of companies have their software product that can solve your problem. The question is what the factors are to be considered to choose that particular one software. The first step is to find a person, not a company, who can understand your requirements. If they can understand your requirement, they can help you reach your goal. Once you find that person, look at the way they are approaching you. Are they approaching you to sell their product or to establish a relationship? Go for the one who wants to make a relationship as their target is to make a connection with you and because you can ask all the questions you have for them. You will get to know their team and thus, the technical expertise they possess.

Once you are satisfied with the team, understand their product. Observe the features they offer and compare it with others. Look for the amount of customization they offer because a single software might not be able to solve all your issues but if it’s customizable, you can ask for some add-ons.

What value FieldEquip provides?

FieldEquip is one software that fulfils all your needs. Started in 2005, the team has 14 years of experience in developing software and working with clients as a part of Bursys. Now they have a product that is fully customizable which is available on all the platforms, web portals (windows, iOS), and mobile (windows, iOS and android). The team can add, drop or even create features as your operations desire. The intuitive software has data capturing capability and its predictive analysis sends alarms and notifications for any abnormality. It also helps you track movement of resources, equipment and personnel, so that you can optimize their utilization. In essence to maintenance, it notifies you about the time when the machine should be worked upon. Their big backend team makes the team very responsive and can solve your problems with just one call or email. Conclusively, FieldEquip makes you efficient without additional man efforts and additional replacements of parts etc. The machines are not exposed to the outer environment, resulting in less wear and tear.

About the Authors

Prat Gupta, Ph.D.

Prat is a visionary machine learning and AI architect, investor, entrepreneur who founded different companies under the Bursys Group portfolio of companies. Bursys group has expanded operations since it was founded in 2005 in North America, Europe, and Asia. Bursys Group provides a full range of technology consulting and software development services. Bursys group has developed and launched FieldEquip, an innovative connected field service platform that brings machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve real-world field service automation problems. Prat also serves on various Boards for profit / Non-profit. Prat loves to engage with innovative & challenging startup ideas and always ready to fund promising ones.

Abhineet Goyal, Marketing Analyst Intern @ Bursys Group

As a strategic, efficiency-focused business leader, Abhineet find himself consistently drawn towards opportunities and spaces to conceptualize and implement optimized processes with the knack of building and maintaining customer and vendor relationships to drive growth for cutting-edge organizations. Before coming to Bursys, he has effectively managed a variety of cross-functional teams in manufacturing and retail industry by understanding and applying team members' strengths and developing clear and attainable goals to consistently motivate the teams.