Most manufacturers tend to the maintenance of their plants with all the eagerness of a high school kid cleaning his room. But give that teenager 20 bucks for the task, and the room might just turn out sparkling.
Jay Lee, director of the Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS) and scholar and professor at the University of Cincinnati, wants to dangle a similar incentive in front of manufacturers, with lots of extra zeros for good measure.
The routine upkeep of machines, bearings, drives, motors, and factory floor systems is intended to keep equipment in peak operating condition and eliminate costly downtime. However, maintenance programs too often involve lots of guesswork: Change a tool or part after a set time period, regardless of the actual condition of the equipment.
Manufacturers can work smarter than that and save money along the way, according to Lee and his roundtable of enthusiasts at the IMS Center, who are championing the notion of predictive maintenance. Lee's roundtable includes industry trendsetters such as Toyota, Boeing, GE, Procter & Gamble, and AMD, and automation technology suppliers such as Honeywell, Rockwell Automation, and Siemens. Each pays a $40,000 annual membership fee to have access to the predictive maintenance technology innovations created by Lee and the center staff, including students, researchers, and others at the University of Cincinnati, the University of Michigan, and Missouri University of Science and Technology.