Efficient Plant March 2020 - 12

feature | predictive maintenance
nance ensures the business is maximizing
the capital outlay made on their machinery.

PRESCRIPTIVE FUTURE
How is prescriptive maintenance different
and what new solutions will it offer?
Our understanding of our assets and their
modes of operation is constantly expanding.
Algorithms now recognize when machines
enter failure modes and can identify the
pre-conditions around them. These processes are automated, but they will often require
a human being to make decisions and sanction any associated maintenance actions.
The aim is to use machine learning and
artificial intelligence applications to understand and spot patterns that lead to failure
modes. Then, moving beyond simple monitoring and recommending, these applications can be equipped to make their own
decisions as to the next maintenance steps
and to act on them automatically, inasmuch

as this is possible in a physical universe.
With enough intelligence in the system, the
idea is that the plant can operate with less
human interaction in terms of overview and
correction when the plant's assets encounter
disruption or enter unexpected states.
This presents additional opportunities for
agility and operation responsiveness that
can have a positive impact on productivity
and profitability. Autonomous control can
be used to change how a plant is operating,
based on equipment status and/or product
demand and price in the marketplace. Sensors and devices will continuously collect
data, compare it with other machines in the
factory and broader data from the cloud,
and then generate insights and actionable
responses in real time.
Prescriptive maintenance will allow producers to operate a plant in its most efficient
and profitable mode while responding to
factors such as market demand and maxi-

mizing equipment-maintenance intervals.
In the future, embracing the possibilities of prescriptive maintenance will entail
changes in infrastructure, management,
and operations. Adopting predictive
maintenance, which itself requires new
systems and working methods to be utilized
effectively, is a step in the right direction. A
prescriptive approach will require further
change if it is to be successfully employed
and its benefits fully appreciated. Existing systems will need to be updated and
disrupted for the prescriptive maintenance
approach to work effectively. EP
Paul Gogarty is Product Manager for ABB
Asset Lifecycle Services, Peterborough, UK.
He is responsible for the development and
harmonization of ABB installed-base management services, Enterprise Asset Management tools, and lifecycle cost estimation for
ABB Industrial Automation.

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Efficient Plant March 2020

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