Maintenance on a shoestring: the low-cost journey from zero to condition-based maintenance

• Published in: Low-Cost Digital Solutions for Industrial Automation (LoDiSA 2023) Vol. 2023; pp. 41 - 47
• Main Authors: Rivera Torres, P. J., Chen, C.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2023
• DOI: 10.1049/icp.2023.1733

Proper maintenance is at the heart of any manufacturing operation. Predictive maintenance strategies can reduce or eliminate unscheduled downtime due to failures caused by reactive or run-to-failure maintenance strategies, increase production capacity, reduce costs, and extend equipment lifetime. However, many small to medium enterprises (SME) are often constrained in terms of personnel, costs, skill levels, and other issues, and the methodological implementation of maintenance strategies is seldom followed. This paper will focus on the provision of low-cost alternatives that may be applied by SMEs using the Shoestring Approach and explore the potential impacts that the use of low-cost technologies may have on their maintenance support activities, and provide a blueprint for transitioning, taking them from no maintenance to predictive maintenance, using low-cost sensors and SoC computers.