We think that providing a mobile solution to our field staff will help them in some way. Whether it be for them to become more efficient or to communicate better, we have the idea that adding a tablet to their toolbox is a good thing. It certainly can be, but how does this new tool fit into their daily pattern of work?

Maintaining an interactive collaborative partnership with inter- and intra-departmental groups and outside groups is essential if a maintenance department is to be successful in delivering asset reliability and availability at a level suitable to achieve production throughput and quality targets. To achieve this, a maintenance department must understand the difference between “what it manages” and “what it controls.”

As we move towards empowering maintenance with AI and other learning tools, connecting to the growing sources of data is an important consideration. Add this to the plethora of MES systems that are available to us, there is much to explore.

If you search the Internet for information on asset management, the Internet and Industrial Internet of Things, digitalization, business trends and business reengineering, you’ll find a considerable increase in the number of articles with headlines heralding or promising significant and “disruption” or “disruptive” change. It’s wiser to focus on how to extract value from what you have and spend time creating the vision of where you want to go on the digital journey.

Inspite of the automation, work orders were created manually and assigned manually to maintenance engineers. The automation provided by software tools relied on humans inputting asset, maintenance and people related information in the software. Over the 5 to 7 years, the basic concept of entering information is becoming redundant. Most modern machines can now monitor their own condition and send out information to maintenance teams if their operating parameters have breached. Industrial Internet of Things is changing how maintenance work orders are created, executed and completed.