Mechanical asset management is a vital function in an enterprise and one of the most important systems. Providing necessary support to the business mechanical assets consists of facilitating components such as plumbing, elevators, escalators, heaters and air conditioning.
Mechanisation started at the brink of the 20th century. Heavy machinery use produced an artificial environment where factory buildings should control heating and air conditioning artificially since the natural balancing system is not enough anymore. This was when the factories introduced heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC). The factories grew larger in size, and the demand for mechanical systems grew larger too.
So the mechanical system provides the building occupants with the water, heating, cooling and ventilation to meet the interior conditions and service requirements. The mechanical system consists of different assets, including pumps, valves, fans, boilers, hot water tanks, air conditioning equipment, etc. These assets are primarily short-life assets with a service life of fewer than 16 years or medium-life assets with a service life of more than 16 years but less than 30 years. The mechanical assets usually are maintained on either fixed intervals under preventive maintenance or sometimes under predictive maintenance programs.
Maintaining And Managing Mechanical Assets
Some mechanical asset systems are hidden walls and floors that are difficult to maintain, but most of the equipment is situated in a different room, allowing frequent visits and checkups. The mechanical asset system is critical to the business. Therefore, it is vital to keep it up and running the whole time, which requires time, effort and money. When maintained under preventive maintenance, the mechanical maintenance process must regularly supervise the equipment. Sometimes mechanical asset managers are required to launch predictive maintenance programs.
Lubricating pumps and motors, replacing worn out parts, re-calibrate sensors, and replacing filters are among the many daily maintenance tasks the mechanical asset managers perform. A more traditional sensor-based approach is used to monitor mechanical asset systems. Even though sensors may indicate specific parameters and situations, it still requires a lot of involvement with the system to get meaningful information out of the system. Apart from the labour intensity, manually reading sensors can be time-consuming and sometimes dangerous. Since the sensor-based method does not generate intelligence, it is prone to errors and does not prevent the potential downtime of machines.
Technology To Streamline The Mechanical Asset Management
Optimal mechanical systems are important to maintain smooth processes in the industry. Since the traditional sensor-based system is not the best approach to a highly optimised system, enterprises need to look for modern technology.
Mechanical systems consist of pumps and filters, among the other equipment. They are designed to flow cooling liquids and air throughout the building. Water heating, cooling, ventilation and waste removal are some of the functions of the mechanical assets. The operation and maintenance are labour intensive and require technical skills to keep the system up and running. Most of such systems still use outdated sensor technologies. Even though sensors indicate certain information about the system, monitoring and collecting data from the machines is still time-consuming and dangerous work. It does not provide the comfort of automating the system to be self-monitoring. Devices connected to the internet, also known as the ‘Internet of Things’, communicate with other devices to self-monitor and generate reports about their behaviour. The reports help identify where in the system it needs help more and promptly.
Mechanical systems require constant maintenance, and they are costly if the systems need to be stopped to handle any breakdowns without a prior warning. Smart devices connected to the internet, promptly connect the system to cloud-based systems, data sources, external applications, Business management systems, Enterprise resource planning systems, etc. Having all the data centred helps to visualise data to generate more knowledge and insight through data visualisation, which ultimately leads to better decision making while easing preventive maintenance.
Preparing for the challenges through predictive technology
As much as preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance is also essential for certain aspects of system maintenance. Data analytics play an important role to predict and foresee possible future hiccups. When the mechanical system is connected to the overall system through technology, the data it produces is fed to the mainstream data analytics in the system. Through data visualisation, augmented reality and digital twin technologies, the company can schedule advanced maintenance systems, which ultimately leads to smooth streamlining of the process. The mechanical system has many moving parts, which makes it vulnerable to significant breakdowns all the time. Sudden disasters such as Pipe bursts require an extensive inventory to address such situations promptly. Adopting new technology will make the managers’ task easier to keep the inventory fresh and of the best quality.
Mechanical asset managers have a responsibility to adopt new tech-heavy approaches if they want to elevate the whole operation to its’ full potential.
Enter A World Full Of Possibilities With New Asset Management Technologies
The mechanical asset is like the backbone of a system. The mechanical asset management systems ensure your business is running smoothly by facilitating through the rough patches in the production line.
With the new-age technology, the support businesses receive from mechanical asset management is much more than just keeping up with the production and other functionalities. They also keep the inventory updated, warranty log, and repair maintenance history as part of a streamlined mechanical asset management system. Industrial devices with access to the internet (IIoT) paired with bid data, and advanced analytics offer the business more insight and convenience by avoiding hiccups of untimely breakdowns that need significant repairs and maintenance, which accumulate to help achieve the excellence you are looking for.
