Make asset performance management part of your future.

If you could predict the future, you’d foresee traffic jams and use that information to get to the office on time every day. You’d anticipate requests so you could deliver reports before your boss even asks you to prepare them. And you’d organize deliveries so toner would arrive on your desk just seconds before your printer begins to beep. If you could predict the future, your life would be a whole lot easier, wouldn’t it? Asset Performance Management (APM) is clairvoyance for your connected equipment. It uses AI to determine what’s going to happen, and when, and then initiates the appropriate actions to prevent failure or loss of productivity. Predictively. Prescriptively. Proactively. Preemptively. And you can get APM up and running quicker than you think.

First, let’s talk about your past

Historically, organizations monitor assets based often on the calendar or usage. Maybe every six months or 6,000 hours or 60,000 units of production, a technician performs regular maintenance. The technician visits the remote site, inspects the assets, and determines what – if any – repairs or replacements are needed. Often enough, whatever the diagnosis is, it requires a second visit with the appropriate new parts and tools.

Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t take into account individual asset specifics – things like current condition, type of usage, and environmental conditions. So, all too often, equipment is being either over-maintained or under-maintained. And either way, valuable time and money are wasted, if not in unnecessary inspections, then certainly in costly emergency repairs.

To make matters worse, this traditional approach also may risk regulatory compliance issues if maintenance isn’t appropriately scheduled. The end result of the current approach is wasted work and money, unneeded risk, and assets that aren’t performing at optimum levels. Can any company afford these problems in today’s competitive marketplace?

One global organization that found a smarter way to operate efficiently is Sandvik, a high-technology engineering company that produces mining equipment.

Sandvik helps mine the minerals. IBM helps mine the data. 

Many products developed by Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology never see the light of day. That’s because they’re deep within the Earth, drilling, cutting, crushing, screening, and removing ore-bearing rock. Mining is one of the most asset-intensive industries in the world. And when equipment goes down, everything comes to a standstill, putting productivity and profits in peril.

Sandvik approached IBM to help improve their clients’ overall equipment efficiency (OEE).  They thought that if they could use all the data at their disposal, they could more accurately predict when equipment failures might occur. They’d be able to minimize unscheduled maintenance by taking measures to prevent future breakdowns.

Together, IBM and Sandvik developed OptiMine® Analytics, an analytics and predictive maintenance solution that they sell to mining clients in addition to mining equipment and process optimization software. Running on Watson IoT Platform the solution uses analytical components of IBM Maximo Asset Performance Management portfolio including Analytics Service, Watson Studio, and Watson Machine Learning. It analyzes the huge repository of data that is captured from sensors that are attached to fixed equipment, such as conveyor belts, and mobile equipment, such as trucks and front-end loaders.

The results have been exactly as predicted: OptiMine® dashboards and predictive insights provide control room staff with a real-time view of operations and equipment health, so they can identify potential trouble spots and take immediate preventive and corrective actions.

You’ve got a goldmine opportunity

By working with IBM to create a customized APM solution Sandvik customers have reduced their mine production downtime by as much as 30 percent. This has resulted in reductions in cost-per-ton ore production of up to 50 percent. Those are deep cuts in costs that give those custsomers a competitive advantage.

Learn more about Sandvik’s success story with their ground-breaking advancement in mining technology. Then consider how you could change your own future by predicting the future of your assets.

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