Imagine buying a new car, and it drives like a dream for two or three years with no noticeable issues. At 70,000 miles, the engine seizes up. You take it into the shop and learn the engine needs to be rebuilt. As it turns out, the car ran on the original oil filter the entire time.
You could have gotten 300,000 miles or more out of that car. A quick check and a simple fix would have prevented this catastrophic and untimely loss.
Unfortunately, many manufacturers do the same with their industrial equipment. They settle for a much shorter equipment lifespan because they don’t notice a problem and don’t see the need to collect data. Or they don’t respond to data they have in hand.
Here are two real-world examples of quantifiable losses that could have been avoided, along with some expert advice on how to calculate and extend equipment life.
Case Study #1: Oil Indicates a Problem 2+ Years Before Vibration
In May of 2020, a power plant maintenance team took an oil sample while doing an oil change on a gearbox. Despite viscosity being about half the desired level and significant particle buildup, no action was taken because the team didn’t notice or hear anything unusual.
It wasn’t until November 2022 that the gearbox began making noise. That’s when the maintenance team decided to take another oil sample and monitor vibration as well.
As a result of waiting two years to address the issue, the team faced a far shorter problem-to-failure curve. And the $150,000 gearbox lost nearly half its value due to a 261% faster-than-normal wear rate.
Case Study #2: Cleaner Oil Leads to $20 Million in Additional Value Over 5 Years
A mining operation routinely saw a three-year meantime between gearbox failures, with a $190,000 cost to rebuild each time. The team viewed the high particle count in their oil as an unavoidable byproduct of a dirty operation.
Their lubrication expert suggested a $750 modification kit to seal up a drain port, along with other simple but significant steps to keep the oil clean. These initial measures reduced the gearbox wear rate by 250% and saved nearly $500,000 on rebuild costs alone.
Over the next five years, thanks to increased production and longer equipment lifespan, the plant’s lubrication program changes resulted in $20 million in additional value.
If everything is aligned, everything else is right, and you keep the lubricant clean and dry, you can extend the life of these assets anywhere from three to seven times over your normal.
- Roy Giorgio, lubrication program manager, AssetWatch
Discover How You Can Bring Measurable Value to Your Plant
With the precision and visibility that predictive technologies offer, there’s no need to settle for premature equipment failures, lost production time, and their associated costs. Using multiple condition monitoring techniques, acting as early as practicable on condition monitoring data, and improving your maintenance practices can greatly enhance machine reliability and ROI.
How can you calculate the cost of ignoring your data, or the value you’re creating through positive changes?
Learn the simple formulas and hear more case studies from AssetWatch Lubrication Program Manager Roy Giorgio in the POLARIS Laboratories® on-demand webinar “What’s the Cost of Ignoring Your Data?” Click here to view the recording.
