Industry leaders in energy, oil and gas are mapping a smarter future for maintenance.
By Sheila Kennedy, CMRP
Who would have imagined how dramatically the industrial internet of things (IIoT) would elevate reliability and maintenance practices? Today, we have sophisticated sensors monitoring multiple variables, closing information gaps, eliminating data silos, and populating Big Data repositories in the cloud, where artificial intelligence (AI), advanced pattern recognition (APR), machine learning (ML), and advanced analytics work their magic on common industrial challenges.
Predictive maintenance (PdM) gave us our first taste of the power of monitoring individual machine conditions. With prescriptive maintenance (RxM), data is assimilated from diverse process and performance variables and woven into actionable recommendations (or “prescriptions”) on what to do, when to do it, and how.
