THE ROADMAP TO

DIGITAL
MAINTENANCE
BY GR AHAM IMMERMAN, VP OF MARKE TING, MACHINEME TRICS
T H E R O A D M A P T O D I G I TA L M A I N T E N A N C E A U T O M AT I O N

Contents
I N T R O D U C T I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . �������������������������������� 03

C H A P T E R O N E : R E A C T I V E M A I N T E N A N C E (C U R R E N T S TAT E ) . . . . . . . �������������������������������� 05
What Is Reactive Maintenance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . �������������������������������� 05
Why Reactive Maintenance Doesn’t Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . �������������������������������� 05
The Bigger You Grow, The Worse It Gets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . �������������������������������� 06

C H A P T E R T W O : C A L E N D A R - B A S E D M A I N T E N A N C E (P R E V E N T I V E M A I N T E N A N C E )  � 07
What Is Calendar-Based Maintenance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . �������������������������������� 07
What’s Wrong With Calendar-Based Maintenance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . �������������������������������� 08

C H A P T E R T H R E E : U S A G E- B A S E D M A I N T E N A N C E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
What Is Usage-Based Maintenance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
What’s Wrong With Usage-Based Maintenance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09

C H A P T E R F O U R : C O N D I T I O N - B A S E D M A I N T E N A N C E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
What Is Condition-Based Maintenance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Pros & Cons of Condition-Based Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

C H A P T E R F I V E : P R E D I C T I V E M A I N T E N A N C E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
What Is Predictive Maintenance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Pros and Cons of Predictive Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

C H A P T E R S I X : P R E S C R I P T I V E M A I N T E N A N C E (R X M ) - A U T O M AT I O N ���������������������������������������12
What Is Prescriptive Maintenance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
State of Maturity: Prescriptive Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

C H A P T E R S E V E N : O T H E R M A I N T E N A N C E D R I V E R S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

C H A P T E R E I G H T: H O W D O E S M A C H I N E M E T R I C S F I T I N? ������������������������������������������������������������������14
Data collection and transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Maintenance Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Predictive Maintenance Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Edge Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
T H E R O A D M A P T O D I G I TA L M A I N T E N A N C E A U T O M AT I O N
Introduction
REACTIVE PREVENTIVE USAGE-BASED
MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE
Industry 4.0 has fundamentally changed how the
world does business. With the advent of artificial
intelligence, automation, mixed reality, the Internet of
Things, and a host of other new technologies, we’ve
reached the end of an era and entered into a new,
data-driven world. For manufacturers, this means
that capturing data within their facilities then using it
to drive decision-making is no longer on the cutting
edge—it is a staple for staying competitive.
Manufacturers across the globe are making
strategic changes on their path to digital
transformation to keep up with the demands of a
fast-paced modern market. Of these companies,
many begin with maintenance.
The impact of Industry 4.0 on maintenance is
apparent. Smart factories utilize IoT sensors, which
have become increasingly durable and affordable, to
monitor data on nearly everything measurable within
the facility, from ambient air temperature and clarity
CONDITION-BASED PREDICTIVE PRESCRIPTIVE
MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE
to production goals to machinery wear and tear.
Mobilized maintenance systems are also increasingly
used because they enable workers to submit work
orders directly from their cellphones. Still yet, edge
computing and machine learning capabilities
combine with this collected data to offer low-latency
safety alerts and accurate maintenance predictions.
Manufacturers understand that machine
maintenance is a make-or-break activity, especially in
high-dollar, fast-moving, and high-competition
verticals. Maintenance is a key driver of plant
productivity—it merits focused, priority attention
within any digital transformation strategy because its
shockwaves can be felt throughout every other facet
of the business. According to Deloitte, poor
maintenance strategies reduce a plant’s productive
capacity by up to 20%, leading in part to the $50
billion lost each year by industrial manufacturers due
to unplanned downtime.
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Simply put: keeping machines healthy and running
means everything to a company’s bottom line.
However, maintenance strategies of times past simply
don’t cut it in today’s fast moving world where every
second counts, and manufacturers still using these
practices are finding that it’s never been more
important to prioritize efforts to re-envision these
systems. Thus, modern machine maintenance utilizes
technology including IoT devices for data collection
and machine learning for data processing to reach
better predictions and actionable insights. Combined,
unplanned downtime can be reduced to a degree that it
is practically eliminated, not to mention boosts to
employee morale, reduction in opportunity costs,
augmented client impressions, and reduced waste.
While that all sounds good, the question bears asking:
How do you take your manufacturing company from a
state of reactive maintenance to predictive and
prescriptive maintenance? How do you reap the
benefits of a modern maintenance strategy while
avoiding pitfalls along the way?
To understand the answer to those questions, one
must first understand the maintenance methods
currently at play and what changes from one stage to
the next. In this ebook, we will cover the roadmap—our
suggested path forward—to digital maintenance
automation including:
• Reactive maintenance
When it breaks, you fix it.
• Preventive maintenance
You schedule replacements ahead of time before
parts break, usually at a regular calendar-based
interval.
• Usage-based maintenance
You replace parts when the machine has been
used a certain amount before they break.
• Condition-based maintenance
You replace the parts when machine conditions or
alarms indicate they are wearing out or need to be
replaced to continue to function appropriately.
• Predictive maintenance
You utilize historical data-driven algorithms or
anomaly detection algorithms that help make
predictions about when a part will break and
replace the parts based on these predictions, prior
to them breaking. This usually, but not always,
utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• Prescriptive maintenance
Advanced data analysis methods are used to
do more than predict failure points, but instead
provide and deploy solutions automatically to
avoid failure, safety hazards, and quality issues
that occur as a product of maintenance problems.
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CHAPTER ONE

Reactive Maintenance
(Current State)
R E A C T I V E M A I N T E N A N C E I S T H E S TA R T I N G P O I N T F O R M O S T M A N U FA C T U R E R S .
I T ’ S T H E T R A D I T I O N A L M E T H O D O F M A I N T E N A N C E T H AT H A S B E E N W I T H
M A N U FA C T U R I N G A S L O N G A S M A N U FA C T U R I N G H A S E X I S T E D.

W H AT I S R E A C T I V E WHY REACTIVE MAINTENANCE

MAINTENANCE? DOESN’T WORK:

Trigger type: Breakdown trigger
Just as the name says, this type of maintenance
means you react to whatever happens. Closely
related is run-to-failure maintenance, i.e. you run
it until it breaks and don’t do anything before that
point. You may or may not be prepared or expecting
it. A part breaks and clogs up the whole production
line, often literally and metaphorically. Unscheduled
downtime ensues. Workers lose pay. The company
loses revenue. And everyone just has to wait until
Ralph The Maintenance Guy waltzes in to replace
the offending part (which you may or may not have
on hand.)
This could mean days of downtime, missed
deadlines, and massive hits to your budget,
especially if the tool, machine, or part that broke
is expensive or hard to find. Employees get paid
to reach out to clients with the dreaded “There’s
been a delay…” message. And the costs and risks
trickle down the entire supply chain. It’s a vicious,
expensive cycle.
How can you stay ahead of the game when you
never know when you’ll get to play? There are a host
of issues with reactive maintenance that makes
it untenable for any future-thinking manufacturer.
Here’s why it doesn’t work:
1. Expensive
When you wait for something to fully break
before servicing it, it’s usually already caused
more widespread damage—this is especially
true for manufacturing equipment. Pieces of
broken tools may be jammed in machines. Now
you’re paying the maintenance person overtime
to fix the machine, and you’re going to have to
call them back soon, because the other parts
inside took a hit. When he comes back the
second time, you can guarantee you’ll be paying
for those parts and labor too.
You’re paying your production floor workers
overtime to try to hit your production goals after
unplanned downtime. You’re paying for all the
low-quality products and scrap products created
in the time leading up to the break. You’re paying
QA to seek out these malfunctioning products.
The list goes on and on and on. Reactive
maintenance usually costs manufacturers far
more than they realize.

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2. High Opportunity Cost T H E B I G G E R Y O U G R O W,

It’s not just the most obvious monetary losses
that get expensive with a reactive maintenance
routine. The opportunity cost is through the roof.
When your equipment is down and you’re already
running behind on the orders you have, you’ll have
to turn down or delay new clients who may be just
as happy to find a different manufacturer.
Plus, many companies will choose not to work
with you at all, based on this alone. You could be
seen as a less reliable option, and data-centric
companies understandably have an aversion to
avoidable risk. You may not be able to meet SLA
requirements with too much unplanned downtime.
Data sharing across the supply chain is also
common practice now. If you’re still using
reactive maintenance, there is a good chance
you’re not capturing or utilizing much of the data
in your factory. When your factory can’t meet this
data-sharing expectation, many companies will
choose to look elsewhere for options with more
robust collaborative opportunities.
3. Unsafe
When equipment could break at any time while
the company stays oblivious, employees can get
hurt. This persistent fear can change workplace
culture and have an impact on productivity.
Employees function better when they know they
can rely on the machinery they use to make
a living (and the paycheck that comes with
continuous uptime.)
THE WORSE IT GETS
Companies leveraging more reactive approaches
to maintenance can only expect these struggles to
hold you back more and more the further you scale.
More money is at stake, more people relying on the
income, more moving parts where anything can go
wrong. As complexity increases on the production
floor, so do the risks and costs of reactive
maintenance. It’s also very difficult to optimize
an unpredictable system, so growth will require
exponentially more effort over competitors who are
simply following the data to success.
Many manufacturers continue to use a reactive
maintenance strategy, but those numbers are
dwindling. Systemic issues that arise from this
model inherently hold companies back as compared
to manufacturers who utilize technology for
growth and risk prevention. In a 2018 survey by
Plant Engineering, 80% of maintenance employees
preferred preventive maintenance and approximately
half of manufacturers had moved to a predictive
maintenance strategy.

4. Stress & Emergencies

No one likes to run around putting out fires all day
long. Stress changes how humans make decisions
and causes us to make riskier and even unwise
decisions because it changes our response to
negative consequences. Data can help prevent
that by replacing reactivity with proactivity.

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CHAPTER TWO
Calendar-Based Maintenance
(Preventive Maintenance)
W H AT I S C A L E N D A R - B A S E D
MAINTENANCE?
Trigger type: Time trigger
Calendar or time-based maintenance is essentially
maintenance performed on a calendar schedule. A
maintenance plan for a piece of equipment is put
together that needs to be performed regularly based
on time or a set interval such as every 30, 60, or 90
days and the maintenance is performed each time
the calendar rolls over the specified number of days.
More often than not, manufacturing equipment
comes with standard maintenance calendars that
designate certain maintenance events to be done
after specific time periods (based on a number of
assumptions we’ll explore later) for the machine
to maintain its health (not to mention keeping the
machine covered under its warranty).
In this way, manufacturers can expect and plan
around a certain amount of downtime or schedule
maintenance during off hours in order for equipment
to be up and running during all planned production
periods barring emergencies or unforeseeable
circumstances. Calendar-based maintenance plans
that either come with the machine or are created by
maintenance departments often use the concept of
“Mean Time Between Failure” (MTBF) to determine
the best interval at which to replace parts based on
when they have failed in the past. It works best for
parts that encounter regular use and predictable
wear-and-tear.
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W H AT ’ S W R O N G W I T H
CALENDAR-BASED
MAINTENANCE?
While preventive maintenance is certainly a step
up from reactive maintenance in that there is
a systematic methodology in place to manage
machine maintenance so parts are replaced before
they break and downtime is accounted for, it is not
without its drawbacks. Issues that stem from using
a calendar-based maintenance system include:
1. Expensive
While perhaps cheaper than letting parts break
at random, ruining customer relations, product
quality, worker safety, and even the machines
themselves, preventative maintenance also
comes with a hefty price tag. Calendar-
based maintenance methods often require
manufacturers to replace parts well before their
end of life. Throwing out perfectly good parts
for the sake of sticking to a date adds up fast,
in labor, part costs, and downtime.
2. Scheduling
The Unpredictable: Some manufacturers fall
into the trap of trying to schedule any and
all maintenance under the assumption that
everything fails due to basic wear and tear. In
reality, this is often not the case.
3. Difficult Timing
How do you know how often to schedule
maintenance when you may not have
notable historical data, especially on long-
wearing parts? Maintenance that happens
too infrequently can lead to frequent and
unnecessary failures. Maintenance that is too
frequent introduces chaos to the system—
with every maintenance cycle, there is a chance
that a machine will be put back together
incorrectly or out of calibration as well as a host
of other errors.
4. Variable Machine Usage
How much are you running your machines?
What type of material are they processing?
Simply put, machinery wears at different rates
depending on how often it is used. Machinery
that is run less will amplify other negative
effects of preventive maintenance, such as
cost and waste. Machinery that runs at a higher
than expected interval will likely need more
maintenance than the calendar suggests. Thus,
any calendar based PM plan must at minimum
leverage data from your relative operation
to be even remotely accurate, which is quite
difficult unless you’re a manufacturer that has
machines running constantly or continuously.
Preventive maintenance has long been the industry
standard when it comes to running operations and
equipment effectively and reducing the amount of
downtime or machine malfunctions. It’s a critical
component of the factory ecosystem and ultimately
helps improve the overall health of it. Like the
annual inspection we all get on our vehicles, regular
maintenance procedures on industrial equipment
contributes to ensuring greater asset life extension.
Where preventive maintenance helps avoid some
breakdowns, at the end of day, it’s tied to a strict
schedule. Unfortunately, breakdowns don’t follow
a schedule. In fact, a study by Boeing found that
85% of all equipment failed at random no matter
how much preventive maintenance measures were
applied to equipment. Keeping maintenance trapped
in the confines of a calendar won’t cut it anymore as
competition will increasingly turn to the predictive
approaches and will gain an immediate edge.
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CHAPTER THREE
Usage-Based Maintenance
What about all of those instances that aren’t readily
covered by preventive maintenance or for which that
method would be far too excessive and expensive?
Manufacturers then move toward usage-based
maintenance to account for variable machine usage,
create more sensible timelines, and reduce costs in
the long run.
W H AT I S U S A G E - B A S E D
MAINTENANCE?
Trigger type: Usage trigger
Just as calendar-based maintenance uses a set time
interval to replace parts, usage-based maintenance
utilizes a usage interval, eg:
• Complexity
• Replace your loofah every 30 days (calendar-
based maintenance)
• Change your car’s oil every 5,000 miles. (usage-
based maintenance)
• Unpredictability
In the latter scenario, it doesn’t matter if it takes you
one month or one year to hit five thousand miles, the
oil only needs to be replaced once it has been used to
its potential and further use could cause degradation
of other parts of the automobile.
To continue the metaphor, for a person who takes a
year to drive 5,000 miles, a monthly oil change would
be ridiculous. They would be getting an oil change
approximately every 416 miles if they drive around
the same amount each month. That means their oil
change cost is 1200% higher than it needs to be, plus
the time and risk involved at the eleven unneeded
changes. On a usage-based maintenance system,
they have the same if not lower risk of downtime
and save a lot of money over a twelve-month period.
The same applies to manufacturing machinery. For
machinery that isn’t used consistently, usage-based
maintenance can prevent over-maintenance of
equipment and save a lot of time and money.
W H AT ’ S W R O N G W I T H U S A G E -
BASED MAINTENANCE?
That all sounds great, right? While preventive
maintenance is a great step up from reactive
maintenance in that parts are replaced before they
break and downtime is accounted for, it is not without its
drawbacks. Issues that stem from using a usage-based
maintenance system include:
While still a relatively simple concept, usage-based
maintenance can become increasingly complex,
and some situations just don’t merit the time or
expense to implement usage-based maintenance.
Some machines are prone to breaking at seemingly
random intervals. In these instances, wear-and-tear
might not be the main culprit and usage-based
maintenance will not effectively resolve the issue.
Usage-based maintenance is a step in the right direction
in that it accounts for actual usage rather than time
intervals, which could be arbitrary in some cases. It
reduces the likelihood of over-maintenance and reduces
waste. However, it can be taken further, and to greater
effect, with predictive and prescriptive maintenance.
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CHAPTER FOUR
Condition-Based Maintenance
CONDITION-BASED MAINTENANCE TAKES SOME OF
THE GUESSWORK OUT OF PREDICTING MAINTENANCE
SCHEDULES USING THE CALENDAR- AND CONDITION-BASED
MAINTENANCE METHODS MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY.
W H AT I S C O N D I T I O N - B A S E D
MAINTENANCE?
Trigger type(s): Usage, event, and condition triggers
This form of maintenance is similar to usage-
based maintenance, but with much more frequent
monitoring and a greater volume and depth of data.
Is the tool showing signs of wear? Is performance
decreasing or is it showing other signs of impending
failure? Maintenance only occurs when the quality
of an item dips below a certain predetermined
threshold. Measurements may occur continuously
using sensors connected to the tool or machine, or
it may come from less frequent analog methods of
data collection such as visual inspection.
PROS & CONS OF CONDITION-
BASED MAINTENANCE
Condition-based maintenance is a step up from usage-
based, calendar-based, and reactive maintenance
when it comes to the cost of parts. Because condition-
based maintenance only replaces parts when they are
expected to fail soon, manufacturers get more usage
for their money without the damage and downtime that
comes from pushing parts to the point of failure as
occurs with a reactive maintenance strategy.
There are additional costs associated with frequent
monitoring, whether that is done through a sensor or a
human inspector. However, these costs are generally
offset with savings from reduced downtime as well as
part and machine longevity.
Monitor real-time machine diagnostics and conditions so
you can perform maintenance at the right time to prevent
unexpected, costly downtime.
If sensors are used, costs associated with
installation can add up, especially in hostile
operating environments where sensors may get
destroyed regularly. Some sensors may require that
manufacturers modify their machinery in order to
implement them, oftentimes voiding their warranty.
Additionally, training employees to inspect, install, and
calibrate sensors can become costly.
The time between maintenance actions can be
unpredictable using this method, because parts are
only replaced as needed. This makes it more difficult to
plan for scheduled downtime well in advance.
Condition-based maintenance improves the usage of
parts while largely protecting machines from critical
failures and unscheduled downtime, but training
workers and using aftermarket sensors can become
expensive and time-consuming, especially if sensors
must be replaced frequently. Schedule unpredictability
can also lead to increased opportunity costs. This
system is best implemented on machines that
require frequent part replacements that are easily
monitored and straightforward to fix. For broader
benefits to manufacturers, predictive and prescriptive
maintenance are often notably more effective.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Predictive Maintenance
PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE OUTPERFORMS OUR PRIOR-
DISCUSSED OPTIONS BY BLENDING M ANY OF THE BENEFITS
O F E A C H C AT E G O R Y. T H I S S Y S T E M H E L P S M A N U FA C T U R E R S
P R E D I C T W H E N M A I N T E N A N C E I S M O S T L I K E LY T O B E N E E D E D,
A N D I T D O E S S O W I T H I N C R E A S I N G A C C U R A C Y.
W H AT I S P R E D I C T I V E
MAINTENANCE?
Trigger type(s): Usage, event, and condition triggers
Predictive maintenance utilizes technology such
as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IoT
devices in order to predict when failures will occur
so manufacturers can plan for them in advance and
replace parts before consequences arise. The goal of
predictive maintenance is to hit the Goldilocks zone
of maintenance frequency—not too often and not
too rarely. This avoids pitfalls in over-maintenance
such as excessive parts and labor costs, waste,
and increased risk of human error. It also prevents
issues associated with under-maintenance such as
critical failure, unplanned downtime, and damage to
machinery or employees.
In order to do this, data is collected from factory
machines equipped with IoT sensors and analyzed
based on both current and historical data, often utilizing
machine learning, to find trends and predict failure.
PROS AND CONS OF PREDICTIVE
MAINTENANCE
Manufacturers need to keep fewer spare parts on
hand when they know the most likely periods of failure
for a given piece of equipment. Users of predictive
maintenance techniques get the best of both worlds by
reducing downtime while optimizing resource usage.
Similarly to condition-based maintenance, some IoT
sensors used for these purposes cannot withstand
hostile manufacturing environments such as those
with metal shards, lubricants, corrosive materials,
and similar. Sensor replacement and recalibration
can become costly, especially if those sensors void
the warranty of factory machinery.
MachineMetrics resolves all of these problems and
more. Our solution keeps your machine warranty
intact and, because it does not require sensitive
calibrations, our solution can withstand even the
most intense manufacturing environment demands.
Our devices pull data from the computers of your
machinery and send it, encrypted of course, to the
cloud. Don’t have an in-house data scientist? No
problem, we can handle that for you. Our industrial
IoT platform is flexible and intuitive, so you can
see results from your digital transformation efforts
almost immediately. MachineMetrics Predictive is
explored more in Chapter Eight.
Predictive maintenance is a large step forward for
manufacturers who have Industry 4.0 initiatives. As
advanced as this strategy may appear, it is already
used or will be used by 83% of manufacturers within
the next few years. Of the companies deploying
predictive maintenance projects, 91% have a goal of
reducing repair time and unplanned downtime.
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CHAPTER SIX

Prescriptive Maintenance
(RxM) - Automation
PRESCRIPTIVE M AINTEN ANCE (RXM) TAKES PREDICTIVE M AINTEN ANCE ONE STEP
FURTHER TO PROVIDE THE MOST VALUABLE SOLUTION TO IMPENDING M AINTEN ANCE
ISSUES. PRESCRIPTIVE M AINTEN ANCE EMPOWERS M ANUFACTURERS TO RESOLVE THEIR
OWN M AINTEN ANCE NEEDS WITHOUT THE NEED FOR A VAST ARRAY OF EXPERTS.

W H AT I S P R E S C R I P T I V E
MAINTENANCE?

Trigger type(s): Usage, event, and condition triggers

Prescriptive maintenance utilizes the same

technology as predictive maintenance—industrial
IoT and machine learning—but also offers scenario
simulation to guide action. If predictive maintenance
tells you that your tool will fail within 30 minutes
because of its current vibration patterns and past
data that says those patterns precede failure, then
prescriptive maintenance will tell you that if you
reduce the load on that tool by 30% now, you could
extend the tool’s life by three hours. Prescriptive
maintenance tells you what to do next to get the
most value from what you have—time and tools alike.
S TAT E O F M AT U R I T Y :
PRESCRIPTIVE MAINTENANCE
A mature maintenance strategy utilizes multivariate
approaches and may combine both predictive and
prescriptive maintenance capabilities. This allows
manufacturers to predict, with the absolute most
accuracy feasible today, when to expect part failures
on short, medium, and long-term scales. It also helps
in optimizing processes to get the most life out of
tools and parts while avoiding unplanned downtime
with great precision. Prescriptive maintenance
solutions are able to help guide technicians towards
View, analyze and troubleshoot machine performance
by comparing the operation histograms for selected metrics
of individual machine cycles
expedient repairs by augmenting their situational
intelligence and knowledge-base with the use of
artificial intelligence.
While some implementations of prescriptive
and predictive maintenance can be fragile and
expensive, MachineMetrics offers an industrial
IoT platform that can withstand a broad array of
manufacturing environments, collect data at 10,000
points per second, and send this information to
data professionals on hand, ready and waiting to
optimize your factory floor. Experts in advanced
digital transformation, we have used our experience
to simplify our process to such a degree that you can
install our IoT devices on your machines—without
voiding your warranty—without us ever stepping foot
in your factory with our Do-It-Yourself plan. (But we’re
happy to come help if you want, too.)

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CHAPTER SEVEN

Other Maintenance Drivers

A M A I N T E N A N C E M O D E L S H O U L D B E C H O S E N B A S E D O N T H E M A C H I N E — W H AT
I S I T S C R I T I C A L I T Y ? D O PA R T S W E A R AT A C O N S I S T E N T, P R E D I C TA B L E R AT E ?
M O S T A D VA N C E D FA C I L I T I E S U S E S O M E C O M B I N AT I O N O F C O N D I T I O N - B A S E D,
P R E D I C T I V E , A N D P R E S C R I P T I V E M A I N T E N A N C E O N M O S T I F N OT A L L O F T H E I R
M A C H I N E S . H O W E V E R , T H E R E A R E T W O M O R E I M P O R TA N T M A I N T E N A N C E
DRIVERS TO DISCUSS:

manufacturing environment. Alerts may be triggered

only when multiple criteria have been met, offering
unprecedented complexity and customizability to
ensure the right people stay in the know about any
events of concern.

For the best effect, a notification-driven maintenance

strategy should utilize specific notifications—rather
than vague ones—and be accompanied by a clear
ownership structure so everyone knows what is their
responsibility. Some notification-driven maintenance
systems customize who notifications are sent to
based on the combination of data which triggered
the alert, ensuring that recipients will always be
responsible for the notifications they receive, leading
to fewer missed and ignored notifications.

A U T O M AT I O N - D R I V E N
MAINTENANCE:

Alert the right person at the right time when action needs to be
taken. Track incidents through a workflow with reassignment,
resolution, and full audit tracking
N OT I F I C AT I O N - D R I V E N
MAINTENANCE:
Factory workers receive an alert which prompts
some form of action. This may mean replacing a
tool that is nearing failure or introducing a feedhold
based on a safety alert. The complexity of these
types of notifications is nearly limitless in a smart
Using this advanced strategy, machines are able
to adapt to changes on the fly. These machines
have the capacity to fix themselves. They utilize
data to monitor their own condition, change their
operations to optimize for a desired parameter
such as longevity of parts or highest production
speed, and automatically maintain themselves as
problems arise.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

How Does MachineMetrics Fit In?

D ATA C O L L E C T I O N • Can withstand hostile manufacturing

A N D T R A N S F O R M AT I O N : environments such as those with flying debris,
lubricants, etc.
At the center of maintenance transformation is the
ability to have the data necessary to make decisions.
• Does not require recalibration in the event
MachineMetrics is able to collect high-frequency
it is bumped in order to retain data accuracy
data at 1kHz using a device that:
The speed at which the MachineMetrics High-
• Can be deployed remotely Frequency Data Adapter collects information is
important for making accurate predictions and
• Does not have to be replaced well-informed business decisions. Other sensors
like many IoT sensors on the market on the market can be compared to sheet music that
is missing most of the notes whilst one is trying to
• Works on legacy machinery learn piano. It is difficult to know the “song” of your
factory when most of the sounds go unheard. High
• Does not require opening the machine or voiding speed data collection, however, captures all of the
the warranty notes for a complete, accurate picture of your data.

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We are able to standardize data into a cohesive
format for easy comparison and insights. Example
data items include custom sensor values, machine
status, modes, alarms, overrides, load, speeds, feeds,
PMC parameters, diagnostics, and more. Using our
Edge system, data can also be transformed and
translated between protocols for both local analysis
as well as secure upload and analysis in the cloud.
MAINTENANCE TRIGGERS
Once data is transformed, you can build rules-based
workflows with MachineMetrics for any machine data
item related to the health and maintenance of the
machine including machine conditions and alarms to
trigger factory worker action or system automation.
For example, data patterns might indicate that a
tool is nearing failure and automatically initiate a
feedhold to reduce further damage as well as prevent
the production of scrap parts. At the same time, the
system can alert factory workers to replace the tool in
order to resume regular function.
PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE
A LG O R IT H M S
Data collected using MachineMetrics technology
can be used as inputs for time-series or machine
learning models that drive maintenance alerts
or actions. Develop predictions based on your
specific machinery and conditions, including legacy
machinery, to refine how far to push equipment, when
to proactively maintain machinery, and to develop
an accurate cadence that will reduce downtime and
necessary parts inventory alike. The MachineMetrics
system supports rapid time to value because it
provides actionable data immediately using plug-and-
play adapters and data standardization, eliminating
many of the time-consuming steps on the path to
accurate predictive maintenance.
E D G E P L AT F O R M
Deploy and manage custom algorithms to
MachineMetrics Edge devices that send alerts to
factory workers or stop machines prior to equipment
failure.
“Build rules-based workflows for any
shop floor data item including machine
conditions, alarms, performance metrics,
and KPIs to trigger factory worker action
or system automation.
Access and manage MachineMetrics
Edge via MachineMetrics Edge
Management, no matter where in the
world your machines are. Diagnose
issues or push updates to the Edge
without the necessity of an on-site visit.”
Our Edge devices can support up to 50 factory floor
machines per device, help analyze and sort data
locally in order to send low-latency alerts and signals
to production equipment, and translate, prepare,
and send data to the cloud for storage and deeper
analysis—safely, using state-of-the-art encryption.
These Edge devices reduce network load, maintain
data even in the event of a failed connection, reduce
local storage requirements and redundancy risks,
and offer immediate access to high-power cloud
computing environments so you can turn your data
into actionable insights faster than ever before. You
could see ROI in as few as five days.
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A BOUT M ACHINEME TRIC S
MachineMetrics is accelerating digital factory transformations by providing
an intuitive and flexible industrial IoT platform to easily collect and
transform data from any piece of manufacturing equipment into powerful,
actionable applications.

Right now, hundreds of manufacturers have connected thousands of

machines to MachineMetrics across global factories to reduce machine
downtime, optimize capacity, and drive increased throughput and
profitability for their manufacturing operations.

CONTAC T US
413-341-5747
info@machinemetrics.com
machinemetrics.com