Your business is multifaceted. Perhaps it has multiple field assets, fleet cargo, hardworking equipment, or high-maintenance vehicles – these make up its innate structure.
Maintenance management is an important part of building a healthy business ecosystem.
WITH ADVANCED IT SYSTEMS, REAL-TIME MONITORING AND MAINTENANCE ALERTS ARE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. IT HAS MANY BENEFITS AND WAYS TO SERVE YOU POSITIVELY.
We're here to guide you so you can grab them with both hands and manage your business effectively.
What is maintenance and monitoring?
Whether you want to receive maintenance alerts for your fleet or critical assets for your premises, it all forms part of asset maintenance and monitoring under the umbrella of asset management.
What exactly is asset monitoring? It refers to the management and evaluation of an organization's assets and devices, including tracking of asset usage.
The main purpose of asset maintenance is to ensure efficient operations, create a safe working environment and protect your assets. Quality asset maintenance will ensure that you get the maximum value of your assets and the longevity of your business investment.
Real-time asset tracking allows asset-intensive companies to monitor the condition and usage of their assets. In order to immediately monitor the efficiency of assets and receive maintenance alerts in real time, we need real-time asset tracking through various technologies and sensors.
What is real-time monitoring?
In other words, we mean data monitoring – the path to real-time monitoring.
Real-time monitoring is an IoT-enabled process in which data collected by sensors is continuously streamed for immediate access and viewing, with zero to little latency between collection and delivery.
Traditionally, other monitoring solutions, such as data loggers, have been used. These require expensive installation, creating data blind spots and problems. But with real-time monitoring, the gap in data processing and interpretation is smaller due to the continuous flow of data. In addition, you can use the time monitor for additional visibility.
There are various management methods available for data collection, such as fleet management. For example, real-time monitoring is very important when it comes to fleet management and cargo transport monitoring.
Sensor devices can be placed in the cargo of the fleet. It will collect data on temperature, light, humidity, etc. – depending on the fleet manager's requirements for data processing.
It will be interpreted by the vehicle supplier's software platform, such as Cartrack, where data points will be streamed in real time. Businesses can consolidate information using the platform's comprehensive reporting tools.
But let's talk about how it became the foundation for vehicle and asset maintenance. Now, we're diving into real-time maintenance alerts.
Real-time monitoring paradigm
What does real-time monitoring do?
Let's say you own a national food delivery company with a strong fleet. Fleet management and vehicle cost-effectiveness are top priorities. Vehicle maintenance is an important consideration to reduce costs and ensure an efficient production line.
Fleet managers can leverage real-time vehicle health data collected by vehicle tracking companies such as Cartrack, which will provide streamlined data and alerts related to vehicle maintenance.
Their fleet management platform uses telematics software to provide you with the necessary information and real-time vehicle diagnostics.
We'll explore this in more depth later.
But let's first look at some practical examples and benefits of how asset tracking and maintenance alerts can help your business – the add-on services offered by vehicle tracking vendors.
5 advantages of real-time monitoring:
- Improve asset utilization
Smart algorithms alert you when your assets and machines need repairs. Receive maintenance alerts on movable assets, such as industrial equipment on manufacturing sites. This allows them to be better managed through asset tracking, which improves their durability. For example, forklifts that are not managed and maintained on site can fail, leading to more maintenance problems. In addition, monitoring is used to ensure that equipment maintenance is completed in a timely manner.
- Cost savings
Reduce asset repair or replacement costs. Well-maintained equipment reduces the frequency or necessity of buying new equipment or replacing damaged parts. It can also help with inventory inventory management. If equipment fails, it can affect production costs and supply, which can affect sales and customer retention.
- Improve employee and employee safety
If the asset is well maintained, then the staff will be protected from the dangers posed by the equipment. If there is any danger at the scene, the authorities will be alerted accordingly. You can also prevent situations that could threaten your security.
- Asset and business management
If you're implementing asset maintenance management, you can go a step further and create a risk assessment based on maintenance reports to help identify equipment with high safety risks. Once identified, an appropriate maintenance plan can be implemented to plan parts replacements or upgrades. This will help manage your business more efficiently.
- Improved management processes
Part of vehicle and asset management is developing maintenance strategies to make the most of software data and maintenance alerts. Maintenance tasks can involve a large number of procedures, leaving us in a situation where we don't know where to start. To make things easier for you, we can break them down into predictive, preventive, or corrective maintenance. The difference between preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance is the data analyzed.
Maintenance type
Part of vehicle and asset management is developing maintenance strategies to make the most of software data and maintenance alerts. Maintenance tasks can involve a large number of procedures, leaving us in a situation where we don't know where to start. To make things easier for you, we can break them down into predictive, preventive, or corrective maintenance. The difference between preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance is the data analyzed.
Let's unravel it again
Predictive maintenance
Predictive maintenance is an advanced form of planned maintenance that monitors the condition of assets in real time. It relies on monitoring and analyzing data from the actual current condition of the equipment in operation. In predictive maintenance, there are condition monitoring tools for detecting equipment failure and damage.
How does predictive maintenance work?
Maintenance workflows are used to retrieve your asset or vehicle diagnostics so that you receive necessary maintenance alerts. Vehicle tracking suppliers are usually ready.
The sensor connects to the monitored asset and then collects data and sets parameters from the sensor within an identifiable baseline. While the asset is running, the sensor detects any performance anomalies and sends maintenance alerts. Maintenance is then performed before the asset is run as usual. Advanced warnings like this can save your business from excessive maintenance costs or, worse, irreparable damage to your assets.
Here are the tools and techniques that make this possible:
- Condition monitoring equipment
These are sensors commonly used for maintenance to take information from an asset and capture data, which is then communicated with software to assess the state of the asset in real time. As part of internal operations, alerts can be configured as a cloud monitoring service for maintenance. You can configure single or multiple condition-based alerts to notify you of issues that might require your attention. When a condition-based alert is triggered, you are notified through one or more notification channels.
In addition to increasing the service life of the equipment. Machine condition monitoring supports a variety of manufacturers' objectives, including:
– Reduce and eliminate unplanned machine downtime
– Optimize machine health and performance
– Improve quality and reduce parts scrap
– Drive maintenance performance plans based on accurate machine data
– Automation based on real-time machine status data
There are various condition monitoring sensors that can detect environmental phenomena.
Here are some examples for businesses to consider:
- Vibration monitoring. Vibration patterns can indicate many different things. Monitoring vibration patterns provides insight into the durability of a part, and changes in this pattern can indicate tool failure, often taking 15 minutes or more than when a human operator starts spotting a problem
- Temperature. Temperature is a strong indicator of any potential problems in the machine. If the temperature deviates from the set parameters or standards, employees will be alerted about any impending machine failure, machine failure or even fire in a hazardous environment. This can also pose a significant health risk.
- Torque: A worksite may have assets that operate using torsional forces around an axis, called torque. Use sensors to identify anomalies in the rotational force of a machine and understand how it changes during job runs. Monitor its day-to-day functions and determine any correlation to end-of-life parts, machine breakdowns, and damaged tools. Site administrators can integrate the retrieved data into their maintenance policies.
- Internet of Things (IoT): The Internet of Things refers to the way devices interact. The role of IoT is to analyze and understand device data. Different sensors collect and share data with other parts of IoT technology, such as user interfaces and connections within central information systems.
- Prediction formula: From here, the prediction formula identifies common equipment maintenance trends, including service, repair, or replacement. These formulas rely on predetermined algorithms that compare the machine's current behavior with its intended behavior. Once the trend is far from the standard, there are signs of gradual deterioration. The maintenance team can then take steps to prevent equipment failure.
What are the main industries that use predictive maintenance today?
Manufacturing benefits the most from predictive maintenance. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, global manufacturing could save up to $630 by using predictive maintenance by 2025. Manufacturers can use this maintenance strategy to manage factory floor equipment, facilitate operations, and improve workplace safety.
Preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance relies on historical data, averages, and life expectancy statistics to predict when maintenance activities will be needed. It includes taking the necessary precautions and actions to prevent equipment accidents or failures from occurring before they occur.
The benefits of preventive maintenance will reduce business downtime and productivity due to equipment not working properly. It will also ensure that all equipment and employees work only within predetermined hours, eliminating the need to pay employees overtime due to unforeseen machine breakdowns.
Real-time vehicle monitoring benefits
According to vehicle safety experts, all vehicles are subject to wear and tear, and unless regular maintenance is performed, this wear and tear can eventually lead to unsafe vehicles and vehicle breakdowns, affecting your downtime and productivity.
Regular scheduled maintenance is a crucial step to prevent this.
We know that on-site maintenance and management is necessary for operations managers. The same applies to fleets, which is equally crucial.
Here are some of the uses of real-time monitoring in vehicle maintenance.
- Improve driver safety, as poorly maintained vehicles can cause life-threatening accidents on the road.
- Seamless maintenance schedule that is easy to adjust
- Avoid road breakdowns and accidents. Receive real-time alerts for any engine failures, brake pad wear, oil and water fluctuations, and other diagnostics, helping you pre-determine which vehicles need service.
- Respond immediately to maintenance needs. Schedule maintenance in advance and warn drivers through our app and keep workflows uninterrupted. Communicate directly with your driver when a fault is detected and let them know in real-time where to take the vehicle, helping you minimize downtime and future problems.
- Automated preventive maintenance. Our platform makes it easy to automate maintenance schedules for each vehicle by using your usage time and last service time
- Reduce maintenance costs. A robust maintenance service program helps prevent vehicle breakdowns and minimizes major indirect and direct costs.
- Extend vehicle life. With a proactive maintenance program, your vehicle will stay healthy for longer, ensuring you get more out of it.
- Reduce unnecessary downtime. Prevent vehicle breakdowns and plan repairs in advance to reduce project disruptions.
- Improved maintenance workflow: For your fleet, you can use the Cartrack app, which will provide you with real-time maintenance alerts. As a result, you can better streamline processes and workflows.
Monitor other uses of the application in real time
- What is real-time database monitoring? It is used to measure the performance of the database in real time. Receive alerts to identify issues and other attributes that could lead to future issues.
- Real-time monitoring tools are very useful in the healthcare industry. Immediate alerts for maintenance are critical to patient safety in the hospital.
- Real-time monitoring call centers refers to the tools and software that managers use to supervise and track agent calls. Alerts can be routed faster to the right employees, or even to automated systems, for future mitigation.
Use Cartrack to stay on top of your vehicle maintenance and/or asset maintenance and develop a maintenance strategy that's right for you.
