Reality: The numbers don’t lie…A more reliable plant is a safer and more productive plant. Getting by is just not acceptable to meet today’s safety, cost, and environmental requirements. Whether you have a full-blown program or are just starting out with a few analytical techniques, the pace of technological advancements can bring the benefits of reliability improvements closer than ever before. Without a solid approach, you have no means to sustain those gains, nor any way to measure progress. No matter where your organization may be in its maintenance and reliability journey, the fact remains that there is a high ceiling for fortifying your approach. Companies that consistently outpace their competitors have a dedicated focus on using reliability to increase production while simultaneously reducing plant maintenance costs. Suffice it to say, even a small investment in reliability can pay big dividends.

Reality: If a member of your team or an outside contractor is collecting PdM data on some routine basis, it is very likely that things can be missed. For instance, it’s common for some pieces of equipment to be on routes that are either inaccessible or unavailable at the time of collection. What happens if you or someone is late analyzing that data for another month…or more? By the time an actual analysis occurs, other problems could have materialized.
 
That’s the unfortunate reality of reliability in most facilities, and it’s paramount that conventional PdM approaches be augmented with new techniques to maximize the chance of predicting and preventing failures. When deciding how to structure your program or when to enlist outside help, consider the frequency, quality, and ownership of the data. Nobody likes spending money to look at perfectly healthy assets while other issues persist. Be aware that if your contractor changes, a decade’s worth of your historical data and plant knowledge may walk out the door with them.