What Is Smart Maintenance? (And How to Perform It)

Many companies still believe preventive maintenance is the best way to maintain equipment. However, with more advanced hardware and AI technologies, there are even more advanced preventive techniques available on the market — we call them smart maintenance.

In this guide, we explore the meaning of smart maintenance, how it works and two smart maintenance techniques that can improve equipment performance and health. Let’s jump in.

What Is Smart Maintenance?

Smart maintenance involves collecting and analyzing equipment performance data to make smarter maintenance decisions. Collected data is used to predict maintenance needs, optimize inventory levels, streamline supply chains and improve overall operational efficiency.

Suppose one of your most critical machines has a history of unexpected breakdowns. You’re stuck in a costly cycle of emergency repairs and unplanned downtime. How do you break this cycle of equipment failures? That’s where smart maintenance comes in.

How Smart Maintenance Works

There are two types of smart maintenance strategies: predictive maintenance and prescriptive maintenance. Predictive maintenance involves using internet of things (IoT) sensors to collect real-time data in tandem with a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to store and analyze that data.

For example, let’s say you recently installed a new conveyor belt in your warehouse, and you want to set up a solid maintenance plan to optimize asset performance. To do this, you mount an accelerometer on it to monitor vibrations. The accelerometer sends real-time vibration data to your CMMS software, which performs data analysis and flags anomalies.

The result? Fewer surprise breakdowns, reduced equipment downtime and cost savings on repairs. That’s exactly why many manufacturers are quickly turning to smart maintenance techniques. In fact, the global market for predictive maintenance for the manufacturing industry is projected to reach $9.8 billion by 2030, a 23.7 percent CAGR from $2.2 billion in 2023.

However, there’s a small problem. Predictive maintenance predicts problems but doesn’t offer a solution. Say you have a fleet of delivery trucks. Your system detects declining engine efficiency in one of the trucks and predicts engine failure, but this time, it also gives you an optimal service schedule and parts required to perform maintenance. That’s prescriptive maintenance.

How to Perform Smart Maintenance

For those new to implementing a smart maintenance program into their overall strategy, here’s an overview of how you can perform smart maintenance:

• Install condition-based monitoring sensors: The first step is to set up sensors that will collect data from equipment. The specific metric you should track depends on your equipment. It could be vibration, temperature, pressure or energy consumption. Once you know the metric you want to track, purchase and install a sensor to collect data.
• Send data to paired software: Paired software tracks the data that sensors collect. It’s the brain of smart maintenance. A CMMS, for example, can collect sensor data and offer insights about the equipment’s condition using machine learning algorithms. Insights are typically early warnings of an issue with the equipment.
• Perform maintenance: Maintenance teams review the algorithm’s recommendations and choose a course of action. Maintenance technicians then perform maintenance activities to fix the problem the algorithm found. Once maintenance work is completed, the technician marks the work order as complete using the CMMS.
• Record and learn: The CMMS records each step of the maintenance process, from work order creation to maintenance-related communication between team members. This information feeds back into the system to enrich its knowledge base for more accurate predictive analytics and recommendations in the future.

Technologies Used for Smart Maintenance

You need a combination of hardware and software tools to implement smart maintenance. Here are some examples of tools you might need:

• IoT devices: IoT devices collect various types of data from equipment, including vibration, temperature and pressure. You’ll need a professional to mount the predictive maintenance tools on your equipment, so it can take accurate readings when collecting data.
• Condition-based monitoring tools: Condition-based monitoring tools are software solutions that interpret equipment data. Some CMMS solutions offer built-in condition monitoring tools, speaking of which…
• CMMS: CMMS records maintenance data, automates maintenance processes and allows you to streamline your maintenance approach. The best CMMS solutions enable you to put most maintenance tasks on autopilot — they can automatically create and assign work orders, trigger notifications to technicians about assigned and overdue work orders, and create an audit trail. A CMMS can also act as a compliance tool since it creates an audit trail as you perform compliance-driven tasks, such as ones that impact worker safety.
• Machine learning (ML): ML is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) technology that uses data to identify patterns and learn from them. In the context of smart maintenance, ML is trained with historical maintenance data to enable it to identify anomalies in new data collected by IoT sensors. Most top condition-based monitoring tools and CMMS solutions offer machine learning capabilities.
• Virtual and augmented reality: VR and AR are excellent tools for maintenance training and troubleshooting. VR enables immersive training sessions, helping teams practice complex repairs in a virtual environment before tackling them onsite. On the other hand, AR gives technicians the ability to view step-by-step repair checklists and instructions overlaid onto the equipment in real time. 

Benefits of Smart Maintenance

Is it worth putting in all that effort to implement a smart maintenance solution into your workflow? We think so, and here are just a few benefits to consider. Smart maintenance: 

• Increases uptime and reliability: Predicting and fixing problems before they lead to a malfunction increases uptime and equipment reliability. In a smart factory setting, this means you can go closer to your facility’s optimum production capacity and generate more revenue.
• Improves asset life: Equipment that breaks down less frequently lasts longer. With predictive maintenance, you’ll be more proactive in your maintenance operations, which helps increase asset lifespans.
• Reduces maintenance costs: Reactive maintenance is expensive because you might need to rush shipping for parts, pay overtime and request expedited contractor services. There’s also the cost of additional energy consumption in equipment that’s not operating efficiently. With proactive maintenance, you can significantly minimize these maintenance costs.
• Enhances accuracy: IoT devices collect and analyze precise equipment data. This enables highly accurate diagnostics and actionable insights, so your maintenance team knows exactly what needs attention and when.
• Increases production output: Predictive and prescriptive maintenance minimizes downtime. This translates to better capacity utilization and increased production output. 
• Improves employee safety and compliance: Maintenance is vital to ensure equipment that your employees are working with is safe. Failure to ensure safety through regular maintenance results in OSHA violations and puts your employees at risk of injury. There’s also the potential risk of litigation, which can lead to penalties and loss of reputation.

Disadvantages of Smart Maintenance

Like every maintenance technique out there, smart maintenance has a few downsides. Here are a few factors to consider if you plan to implement smart maintenance:

• Expensive to implement: Smart maintenance requires a major upfront investment. Before you start collecting and analyzing equipment data, you’ll need to spend money on costly IoT sensors, software subscriptions and training. While the benefits over the long term far outweigh these costs, the initial investment and payback period can be a barrier for some businesses, especially young ones.
• Steep learning curve: To make this digital transformation, your team must know how to use and maintain sensors mounted on your equipment. Mounting the sensor in the right location on the equipment is also important to get accurate readings. Moreover, you also need someone who can interpret the results once the machine learning algorithm gives you an output.

Using Coast to Streamline Smart Maintenance

Coast is a mobile-friendly, highly customizable CMMS capable of receiving, storing and analyzing equipment data collected through sensors. Once you have intel on equipment health, configure Coast to execute your maintenance schedule to keep assets in excellent condition.

A built-in chat feature in Coast allows team members to easily communicate with supervisors or managers within work orders. This means technicians get their questions answered in real time. Technicians can also add images to their messages for additional context.

If you’re looking to implement smart maintenance, try Coast today to see how it can streamline your maintenance processes and make smart maintenance a whole lot easier.