Accelerating the rise of data-driven maintenance
Assessing the adoption of digital technologies in manufacturing for data-driven maintenance.
Also known as “human-centric industry”, Industry 5.0 is seen as the next evolution of manufacturing, integrating the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and automation while putting a greater emphasis on the role of human workers. Once thought as futuristic, Industry 5.0 is now progressing rapidly with the advancement of AI. According to a recent AI adoption report by Fluke Reliability, a provider of tools, software and services to optimise asset performance, manufacturers have ambitious plans to achieve Industry 5.0 goals within the next year.
And it’s no surprise that companies are rethinking their maintenance and reliability strategies, driven by macro-economic challenges, sustainability concerns, supply chain disruptions and the growing skills shortage. With that, comes investment in digital technologies such as AI.
“Our mission is to simplify connected reliability for our customers so they can keep the world up and running,” says Ankush Malhotra, Fluke Reliability’s President. “But you’ve got to get started - if you haven’t, you’re already late. A lot of our focus is on demystifying AI and to ensure the barriers to start are really small. This is a technology that is easily understandable for the problems our customers solve, and it’s easy to scale up so a customer can start small, get comfortable, improve the ROI and then keep growing. Through our managed service and training, our job is to help them through that journey.”
SHIFTING TO PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE
According to Fluke’s report, manufacturers are already leveraging a range of digital technologies to enhance their operational and maintenance capabilities, however only 8% are currently operating a predictive maintenance strategy. This looks set to change drastically, though, with over 76% of maintenance managers wanting to shift to predictive or proactive maintenance in the future. The work is starting now, it seems, with over a third of manufacturers already having Industry 5.0 and smart manufacturing projects underway. With many of these projects expected to be complete within 10 months, it’s clear that AI is a priority for 2024 and beyond, with manufacturers investing heavily in the technology.
“The idea of continually improving maintenance and reliability strategies to enhance efficiency and drive profitability certainly isn’t new,” says Malhotra. “However, there’s little doubt that today’s challenging operating environments – coupled with the ongoing shortage of skilled maintenance professionals – is driving the issue higher up the boardroom agenda.”
Perhaps one of the most significant figures laid out by the report is 93% of respondents confirming that the adoption of AI technologies is an organisational priority for 2024, with the intent to invest 44% of their budget on AI technologies like predictive maintenance and machine learning.
“Having visibility across multiple sites and operations is now critical for c-suite executives – to inform smarter planning, to share inventory and ultimately to help them make group level decisions that really move the needle on key cost drivers,” Malhotra adds. “Is AI driving urgency in many of these conversations? Absolutely.”
OVERCOMING ADOPTION CHALLENGES
Over the past 75 years, Fluke Reliability has helped reliability and maintenance teams to optimise their asset performance with a range of powerful tools, software and services. The company’s Azima DLI brand – acquired by Fluke in 2023 - enables engineers to maximise uptime and demonstrate ROI with vibration monitoring, advanced AI analysis and enterprise reporting. The Azima DLI Diagnostic engine has been trained on 30 years of data and draws from 100 trillion data points across 50 machinery component types, offering a vast wealth of crucial information to maintenance and reliability engineers. Together with Fluke’s eMaint asset management software and Prüftechnik condition monitoring and alignment devices, Azima DLI’s AI-powered machine health analysis offers engineers a comprehensive platform for implementing an effective predictive maintenance strategy.
“Manufacturing faces many challenges such as supply chain disruption, skilled labour shortages, sustainability, net zero goals, lack of standardisation and so on,” says Malhotra. “But I also think we’re at a unique time in our industry where the opportunities are even greater with all the technologies available, from Industry 5.0 to predictive maintenance and AI. The message we’re saying to customers is to start small and then scale, demystify AI with training, and make sure that we can be a partner to help our customers on this journey. That’s why we’ve put together these solutions. Our vision is to simplify technology, and make things easy for our customers to understand and implement.”
For more information visit: https://reliability.fluke.com