Manufacturing SAP

SAP Predictive vs Preventive Maintenance – Optimize Maintenance to Save Costs

Publish Date: March 7, 2019

The assets of the companies should function properly to avoid downtime and improve production. Operational success will be when all the resources like the equipment, technical team and all others who are involved in the process are functioning together. Most of the companies still lack the visibility of the asset’s lifecycle and performance.
For companies without a strong Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), the task of gathering information and evaluating them to draw a meaningful conclusion and take a good business decision is extremely difficult. With CMMS, the advantage is that it is a central data repository for critical asset information and history. But still, some managers rely on manual methods like spreadsheets, printouts, etc. for equipment reporting.
One of the key opportunities in manufacturing businesses today is optimizing maintenance activities and leveraging support services to minimize downtime and enable cost savings. To make improvements in maintenance facilities, equipment manufacturers have traditionally analyzed historical data only for limited insights. They learned why a particular failure happened and concluded what could be done in the future to prevent it.
However, today, businesses want to understand more about the condition of their equipment and foresee the need for maintenance so that they can make informed decisions. The former condition outlines preventive maintenance where businesses try to avoid system and production breakdowns. Detailed maintenance plans are used to define the date and scope of preventive maintenance. Inspection tasks are outlined, and their extent is determined beforehand. The organizations are taking either a proactive approach or a reactive one.
Preventive Maintenance Defined
Preventive maintenance is a meter-count based or time-based approach in which maintenance activities are carried out at fixed intervals to reduce the risks of failure of equipment. Preventive maintenance is aimed at minimizing scenarios of unplanned downtime and reducing repair costs.
Preventive maintenance is not a sure way to prevent failure, but routine maintenance goes a long way in reducing the chances of system breakdowns. Preventive maintenance:

Greatly improves equipment reliability.
Reduces unplanned downtime caused due to sudden equipment failure.
Adds to the overall safety and security of a manufacturing workplace.

Why Are Businesses Moving Toward Predictive Maintenance?
Businesses today wish to predict the need for maintenance so that they can plan ahead of time. The inter-connectivity between machines through the Internet of Things has made it possible for companies to achieve predictive maintenance. Vast amounts of data availability have also helped companies implement analysis points within their structure.
However, siloed data stored in various formats often slows down the time to extract insights. And, outdated methods of data processing have led to slow maintenance prediction- so much so that predictive failed as a possibility for many manufacturers.
With powerful capabilities in SAP Hana, companies can leverage the following core benefits of predictive maintenance-

Increase service profitability by enabling third-party service providers to deliver high-margin services by increasing visibility into field assets.
Reduce maintenance expenses by planning maintenance schedules to improve resource utilization and reduce downtime.
Improve asset availability by enabling asset operators to leverage data and analytics to predict the need for maintenance and take corrective measures quickly.

SAP Predictive Maintenance Capabilities

Enable maintenance that helps predict anomalies and plan for them, leading companies to optimize asset management.
Monitor and manage connected devices. Leverage the data collected at various points in the manufacturing journey with the help of sensors and special tools to make predictions.
Allow employees to view insights extracted from valuable data with an intuitive experience.
Integrate predictive maintenance capabilities with SAP S/4HANA.

Failures occur in the most uncomfortable hours. Asset-intensive organizations cannot stay on top of all operations unless they know where and when to pay attention.
Having a strong maintenance schedule backed up by preventive or predictive processes can help plant operations run smoothly without hiccups.
SAP S/4HANA with its predictive maintenance capabilities can help your organization manage maintenance activities to optimize resource utilization and plan for anomalies down the road. By following the proactive strategies, like preventive and predictive maintenance, can improve the asset’s utilization, uptime and reduced spending.
Explore what YASH can do for your predictive maintenance process installation.

Vamsi krishna Solution Architect @ YASH Technologies