The 5 Main Benefits of IoT Condition Monitoring

Condition Monitoring offers multiple business benefits, including secondary advantages

earned from the reduction in costs and resources that this technology enables.

The core benefits of condition monitoring can be summarized as:

• Reduced maintenance costs
Maintenance becomes proactive and timely, cutting labor and travel costs, and
repairs are done before critical damage occurs. Service time is reduced, and
customer satisfaction improved.

• Maximized production
With accurate and extensive readouts from sensors on production machines,
combined with data analytics algorithms to gain visibility into production
inefficiencies, new levels of productivity can be reached. This is especially true
with condition monitoring in the oil and gas industry.

• Optimized inventory of spare parts

Rather than overstocking the inventory of expensive spare parts, which impacts
margins, or running low on inventory, which increases downtime, Condition
Monitoring enables accurate forecasting of the demand for spare parts.

• Accurate and relevant data for driving product development

Asset behavioral data collected over time can be aggregated and analyzed by
engineering to identify product design flaws that can be rectified in subsequent
product versions.

• Extended machinery lifetime

The health of a machine and all of its components is monitored in detail.
Overheating, wear-and-tear, and other threats to the machine’s well-being are
taken care of in a timely manner, lengthening the machine’s lifespan.

Condition Monitoring Techniques

The implementation of condition monitoring differs greatly from one manufacturer to another.
This is largely because of how every product or asset has its own unique pattern of “normal”
behavior which must be monitored and analyzed.

Here are some of the more commonly used Condition Monitoring techniques:
• Vibration analysis
• Lubricant analysis
• Infrared thermography
• Acoustic emission
• Ultrasound
• Motor current signature analysis (MCSA)
• Model-based voltage and current systems (MBVI)

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As an example, let’s take a look at this last method using the following illustration:

Condition Monitoring with MBVI

In the above flow diagram, after running a voltage through a motor, the current is measured
and compared to that of a mathematical model that is fed with accurate real-time data
from the same motor. The two current readings are summed and compared. In cases where
no deviations are evident, the motor (or system) can be regarded as healthy. If there are
discrepancies between the mathematical model and the actual motor, we move on to the
analysis stage to find out exactly what the problem is. Once the problem has been identified,
we can classify it and deploy the relevant solution.

In this example, the idea of the permanence of Condition Monitoring becomes clear. It
makes sense to constantly be able to monitor and record the motor’s status, instead of
only momentarily performing a diagnostics check. This way, historical trends are captured
automatically showing us how mechanical, electrical and operational problems and their
parameters change over time.

Condition Monitoring Software

With sensors in place to record the various parameters of the machines as they work,
it would also be very useful to have an application to concentrate the information and
communicate the required action. For this reason, the adoption of condition monitoring
software is growing rapidly as manufacturers look for an easy and efficient way to interpret
information collected by a CM system, and then take timely action upon it.

The Seebo remote condition monitoring solution is an example of such software with the
exception that it not only consolidates the Condition Monitoring data but also supports the
planning and delivery of a complete condition monitoring system from scratch.

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Where should the sensors be placed? What should they be measuring? How should they be
calibrated? What alerts should they send out, and to where? All these questions and others
can be answered using Condition Monitoring software, allowing stakeholders to weigh in on
the design of a system at any stage.

Once remote Condition Monitoring has been implemented, the software continues to act
as its hub, concentrating all the incoming data being reported by the sensors into a central
repository, allowing for deep data analysis that drives corrective action.

Leveraging Condition Monitoring to Create Business Value

Condition Monitoring is really only the first phase in a larger cycle of industrial IoT
maintenance. While monitoring the condition of an asset, data is collected and stored. If that
data calls for an immediate action such as a repair or preventive maintenance of some sort,
then a technician or team is deployed.

Regardless of the action taken, the state of the asset is stored together with its sensor data,
in a big data repository. The data repository can be referred to for specific comparisons that
require historical data, and can also be used to observe trends and formulate predictions.

The accuracy and depth of the data collected from Condition Monitoring, and its reach with
regards to encompassing an entire factory or plant, provides manufacturers with extremely
valuable information that can be leveraged to make informed business decisions regarding
production efficiency.

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Using Big Data analysis, trends can be observed that form the foundation for accurate
predictions, helping both day-to-day operations as well as triggering creative and proactive
strategies for further growth.

Machine + Human = Best Outcome

Condition Monitoring fits into the overall Industrial IoT framework as a foundation block for
continuous improvement. Insights from Condition Monitoring must be acted upon by humans,
embedding the new knowledge into customer service processes, aftermarket sales, production
planning, and new product development. Through Condition Monitoring and other IoT use
cases in manufacturing, we improve our daily operations by containing service and production
costs, increasing sales, and boosting customer satisfaction.