Maintenance is an essential task for the correct functioning of any company, especially when it comes to industrial equipment and machinery. This is a point that should never be neglected, as its correct management can prevent failures, breakdowns and countless costly repairs. There are two classic or traditional methods of carrying out the maintenance of a company’s machinery: preventive or corrective. What is the difference between the two methods? What are the advantages of one over the other? In this article we analyse these two methods of industrial maintenance and explore the possibilities offered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this field.
What is corrective maintenance?
We know corrective maintenance as those actions whose objective is to solve or correct problems as they appear. Normally, this is a type of maintenance that responds to failures and breakdowns derived from the normal use and wear of machinery.
The main characteristic is that corrective maintenance does not require planning. However, this lack of preparation is not always positive or productive.
On the other hand, it is important to bear in mind that corrective maintenance implies a greater stoppage of production and can affect the company’s normal rhythm. Therefore, it should be noted that if a company only carries out preventive maintenance, it will suffer a greater number of stoppages, increased costs and even delays in deliveries and orders.
This type of maintenance is usually carried out by small companies with very little workload. However, no matter how limited the company is, this type of maintenance is not advisable if you are looking for long-term stability and optimisation of all resources to the maximum.
In this post, we talk about the 3 types of maintenance that exist: preventive, corrective and preventive.
What is preventive maintenance?
The alternative to the classic corrective maintenance is preventive maintenance or, also called, planned maintenance. This type of system is carried out on a regular basis in order to minimise the number of failures in the production line. Basically, it aims to prevent failures due to wear and tear by anticipating possible breakdowns due to deterioration.
How? By taking early action and ensuring that production is under control at all times, thus minimising any safety problems.
Some of the tasks that are carried out are based on the inspection of installations, changing the oil in a machine or a good cleaning of the same. Thus, good preventive maintenance will avoid and reduce major breakdowns, repair costs and the replacement of machinery parts.
Experts point out that preventive maintenance is undoubtedly much more efficient and cost-effective in the long run. Moreover, with this system, companies can always rely on a CMMS (Computer Aided Maintenance Management) to take care of this work.
Predictive maintenance as the ultimate solution
Having compared corrective and preventive maintenance, it is worth questioning what role AI can play in this field. Predictive maintenance is emerging as the definitive solution in terms of maintenance management for any company.
Predictive maintenance appears as a new technique that combines IIoT with Artificial Intelligence with the aim of anticipating the appearance of breakdowns, but by detecting anomalies in the operation and indications of possible future failures in production equipment.
How does it work? In the same way that predictive analytics is responsible for anticipating movements in financial markets, predictive maintenance uses data analysis to foresee possible breakdowns and failures in the machinery of any company.
Through machine learning, patterns are extracted and predictions are made that will schedule the maintenance of the asset, long before any type of failure occurs.
What type of maintenance is best for my business?
Whatever your company is, maintenance will always be a fundamental part of it. If you want to increase profitability to the maximum, reducing costs, breakdowns and all kinds of unforeseen events, predictive maintenance will be the best option.
You will be able to put Artificial Intelligence at the service of your company, obtaining an unbeatable system for predicting breakdowns, capable of avoiding a multitude of repairs, improving the useful life of your assets and detecting and reducing possible weak points in the installation of your machinery.
If you want to know how to optimise the performance of your industrial assets, contact the Nexus Integra team. Achieve operational excellence through a centralised operations platform that uses the latest technology and adapts it to your business.
