For many years I’ve captured the digital and service transformation journey in a single tagline: “from fixing what breaks to knowing what works.” The message is driven by a simple principle: customers expect things to work. Even more, they expect the outcome of the asset to be stable over the lifecycle. Another simple truth is that everything eventually deteriorates and breaks. When your goal is to maximize asset performance, you must consider the following questions:

  • What is the life expectancy of the asset?
  • What do I need to do to keep the asset in shape?
  • What can I do to extend the life cycle of the asset?

Here are ServiceMax’s best health monitoring solutions to maximize asset performance.

Building a Fitness Plan to Maximize Asset Performance

maximize asset performance - keep you assets in shapePreventive maintenance might be the first thing that comes to mind as the way to keep your assets in shape. But what does preventive maintenance (PM) prevent? And how does it maximize asset performance and life expectancy?

This was a tough question to answer when one of my counterparts in procurement, who was looking to reduce the selling price of a service contract, asked me, “What will happen when we reduce the PM effort by lengthening the interval?” This was even more difficult to answer when it became a numbers game, and the purchaser asked me to prove the offset between PM and break-fix.

So where do we look next? I propose condition-based maintenance.

We know that the performance of an asset will deteriorate over time, and we know the rate of health deterioration will depend on various attributes like aging and usage. Because these attributes are measurable, we can use them as levels to trigger a service intervention.

So rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach based on time intervals, you can create a custom fitness plan to maximize asset performance. One that looks at the condition of the asset in relation to its expected performance. This can look like an intervention being triggered when the output of an asset or the viscosity of a lubricant drops below a certain threshold.

To continue with the fitness metaphor, we often don’t just want to stay in shape—we also want to increase our longevity and even get in better shape as we age. When it comes to your assets, this is where mid-life upgrades, booster packs, and engineering changes come into play. And in the same way that you use predefined levers to trigger service interventions, you should use these levers to trigger updates, upgrades, and lifecycle extensions.

Both of these service strategies use asset health at the core of your service delivery model, steering you away from ‘fixing what breaks’ and towards ‘knowing what works.’

A Real-Life Example

Imagine you have a pump and valve combination that has a nominal capacity of 140 m3/h.

If you used a preventive maintenance model that runs every 6 months, it would not take into account the age of the pump and valve combination, nor would it account for the corrosiveness of the transported materials.

But if you took a condition-based approach using IoT-connected sensors, you could measure attributes like vibration, temperature, and energy consumption and use them as indicators for asset performance. For example, if the capacity drops below 130 m3/h, a service intervention would be triggered. It’s like the pump saying: “I’m not feeling well, I need medicine.” On top of this, if you detect the pump is consistently pushed beyond original specifications, you can know that it’s necessary to initiate an upgrade conversation to safeguard asset health and durability.

Asset Centricity

The common theme of these service strategies is asset centricity. It’s about putting asset health at the core of your service delivery model and continuously comparing an asset’s current output with its expected performance.

By looking at current performance, expected performance, and demand, you can also advise your customers on when it’s time to downgrade or upgrade the asset. Through this asset-centric lens, you can truly become a fitness coach, advising your customers on the right fitness program that will maximize asset performance.

Learn more about IoT and condition-based maintenance here.

ABOUT Coen Jeukens

Avatar photoCoen Jeukens is vice president of global customer transformation at ServiceMax. He works with customers and prospects to fully unlock the true value and potential of their service organizations. Prior to joining ServiceMax, Coen was the services contract director at Bosch where he implemented an outcome-based business model, with highly impressive results. Coen is also a regular keynote speaker at prominent field service conferences around the globe.