Integrated IT platforms enable efficient maintenance management

Acting beats reacting – this also applies to system maintenance

The unscheduled downtime of a pump can cause major problems: The required spare parts may not be on stock and have to be first ordered and then delivered. Also, the repair team may not be available immediately. If an unscheduled pump downtime leads to the entire production coming to a standstill, costs build up very quickly. Although essential systems are often based on redundant design concepts they are never fully protected against a failure.

However, when a well-planned predictive maintenance strategy is in place, unscheduled system downtimes with all their consequences can largely become a thing of the past. In the event of a problem, sensors fitted at the pump would have most likely detected deviations from normal operation weeks ago and would have sent a warning to the control centre. The experts might have found a misalignment of pump and motor, which caused increased wear of the mechanical seal. The operator would have had the pump and motor re-aligned at a non-critical point of time, and the unscheduled pump downtime would have been prevented.

Predictive maintenance: An efficient and future-proof maintenance strategy

It is neither luck nor fortune-telling and it is certainly no longer science fiction: Predictive maintenance is considered one of the most important fields of application for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0. When correctly implemented, predictive maintenance offers the opportunity of tailoring maintenance intervals exactly to the system condition and operational requirements instead of following a fixed cycle or responding after a failure has already occurred.

Behind predictive maintenance is not only the basic principle of maintenance management but rather an entire system: This includes sensitive sensors at the machinery, secure data storage and the intelligent analysis of all data measured by the sensors using values from experience and smart software. The more the entire process is interlinked, the larger its added value as it provides sufficient information about the machinery and its behaviour.

Intelligent maintenance management offers not only the potential of largely optimised maintenance but also of interdepartmental cooperation. When well planned and implemented, predictive maintenance not only helps service machinery but also optimises tasks and production processes. This is where major potential lies for increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

The three pillars of predictive maintenance:

To be able to use predictive maintenance in a company, you basically need three things:

1. Continuous collection of data at significant system interfaces with sensor technology (simply retrofitted or already integrated in the component)
2. All system data to be transmitted to a central system and stored
3. Smart analysis of digital data flows and integration of outcomes in maintenance and service planning

To get back to the example of a pump system: By regularly checking temperatures and precise vibration values and especially by identifying deviations from standard operation, operators can detect potential error sources quickly and well ahead of any problems, so remedial measures can be performed at uncritical times before any damage has occurred. In addition: The data can be used to create an exact analysis of the load condition. This serves to determine valuable information on potentials for optimisation, allowing the pump to be operated as efficiently as possible.

In general the following applies: The more comprehensive the data basis, the better its analysis and the higher the possible long-term savings from predictive maintenance. However, this is exactly where the problem starts: How can more and more different data from more and more different sources be processed in a meaningful way? And how can different manufacturers' digital processing programs used for different assemblies be interlinked? This challenge is called: Transforming big data into smart data.

The way out of the flood of data: integrated platforms instead of individual island solutions

A myriad of individual data management systems for every component manufacturer and every product group without any interfaces (so-called island solutions) are hard to keep an overview of. They mean more work and cause overlapping of digital data sets.

The solution is a platform concept: In the centre is an intelligent data hub with interfaces that can be fully integrated in all current systems and data flows. Whether it is sensor data from machinery transmitted in real time, stored data from the cloud or manufacturer information about individual system components: A platform solution is a central place where all data is combined, saved, analysed and prepared for decision-making and maintenance planning. This forms a control centre for maintenance and repair that can be precisely configured to the system requirements.

The benefits of such an integrated platform solution are plain to see:

1. Transparency
In the past, it was common for each piece of machinery to have its own logbook. This is where maintenance work, error messages, downtimes, etc. were entered. For inspections tables had to be created and edited. And finally, everything had to be documented by hand. Digital platforms have put an end to the chaos: Automatically generated standardised documentation provides consistent transparency over the entire life cycle of the system. In the best case scenario detailed costs are shown as well.

2. Linked inside and out
Often, communication between the maintenance team and other departments is still by e-mail only, resulting in not everyone always being fully informed about upcoming maintenance work and the downtimes involved. A digitalised process can optimise the internal information flow and allows external partner systems, service companies or suppliers to be integrated in the workflow, from regular maintenance to urgent repair work, simply via a ticket system.

3. Saving time
To make the most of digitalisation potentials, processes, too, have to be optimised. IoT platforms can be a suitable way of clearly defining, streamlining and illustrating processes.

4. Costs
According to a current Bitkom study called "IoT platforms – Current trends and challenges", the use of IoT platforms also offers a high potential for financial savings: 

Predictive maintenance including a suitable platform solution at the example of pump systems

Industrial manufacturing, chemical engineering, power station operation, municipal water supply and many more: Reliable fluid handling with suitable pumps forms the basis of countless processes. Flawlessly pumping fluids as efficiently as possible, providing a safe work environment and making a profit for the company are every operator's key targets. It is therefore very clear that the topics of monitoring and predictive maintenance will play a greater and greater role.

With this in mind, KSB as a leading full-range supplier of pumps and valves has been continuously developing its product portfolio to meet the high demands of digitalisation in system operation and to always be one step ahead. The KSB Guard smart monitoring service fully reflects this quality commitment: It is a comprehensive digital service that helps operators optimise their maintenance management. Sensors at the pumps continuously measure status data that is then collected on a cloud-based platform and analysed by a smart algorithm as well as interpreted and visualised. This algorithm assesses the individual vibration behaviour of the pump. Trends can be derived from certain patterns, allowing pump problems to be detected before any damage occurs. 

Adding to this is the KSB Guard Monitoring Center with its experienced and certified experts who monitor and analyse the data streams at in-depth levels. This provides operators with a digital-based monitoring service leading to comprehensive transparency, increased availability, a higher operating reliability and a more efficient operation.

By the way, KSB Guard with its open interface also enables the smooth integration of data sets into IT platforms that are already in place. Information on the load conditions as well as the current vibration and temperature values of pumps can be accessed at any time and can be made use of in their entiret