Whitepaper: Condition-based maintenance reduces maintenance costs and increases availability in transportation assets

Digital technologies like IoT, cloud services and advanced analytics are disrupting the design and management of transportation assets. Yet, many organisations still struggle to harness transportation data to improve operations of mobile assets…

For industrial, municipal and transit organisations, the pressure to ensure safety while maintaining high quality service and reducing costs are forcing managers to consider how to capitalise on digital strategies.

One way owner-operators, fleet and asset managers are responding is to focus on more efficient, data driven maintenance programs. It is estimated that more than $1 trillion is spent each year replacing perfectly good equipment in the US alone. A growing number of operators are considering adopting condition-based maintenance (CBM) and other proactive strategies that are driven by actual asset conditions rather than calendar- or use-based maintenance schedules. CBM has already been proven to lower costs by eliminating unnecessary maintenance, reducing unexpected failures and reducing downtime.

The advantages of creating a digital infrastructure to implement CBM run far beyond lowering maintenance costs. By tracking asset health in real-time and avoiding unexpected equipment failures, CBM can play a critical role in ensuring overall fleet availability, reducing the cost of downtime and meeting regulatory requirements. Linking real-time equipment conditions with popular EAM systems, such as SAP® PM and IBM® Maximo®, CBM programs can also help extend the value of operational data by integrating it with business environments, for example, to manage parts inventory, equipment lifecycle and inform capital investment strategies.

This white paper will look at the forces that are driving demand for more proactive maintenance strategies of transportation assets and infrastructure. Next, it will examine how CBM works, and how it offers a more efficient and effective alternative to planned maintenance methodologies. Finally, this paper will look at how industries are benefiting from CBM enabled by OSIsoft’s PI System™, an infrastructure for collecting and managing historical and real-time data from both fixed and mobile assets, to create a comprehensive, environment for the collection, management, analysis and presentation of data essential to supporting CBM for transportation assets.