With AI, asset reliability solutions are more powerful than ever

Posted: July 24, 2024

Asset reliability remains a top concern for industrial operations. While AI-driven solutions for asset reliability have delivered impressive efficiency gains for decades now, as the technology that powers them—AI and machine learning—has grown even more advanced, the solutions are now capable of delivering performance improvements that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Even as the applications themselves have evolved, so too has the urgency underpinning industry’s need to adopt them: Organizations face an unprecedented combination of supply-chain volatility and stricter environmental mandates. A holistic asset reliability strategy is one of the best solutions industrial companies have to save costs and improve safety and performance simultaneously.

Reliability management in industrial operations ensures the optimal availability of production assets. When your assets perform at their best, you can minimize maintenance costs, enhance safety and HSE compliance, and meet your sustainability KPIs. When you use advanced software to monitor and predict your asset health, the benefits extend in multiple directions.  

The inverse is also true. Without the visibility an AI-driven asset reliability strategy affords, maintaining your resilience, competitive edge, and profitability becomes a significant challenge—especially when you’re trying to juggle multiple KPIs at once, like reducing your carbon footprint while dealing with volatile supply chains.

It’s also crucial that your people, data, processes, and systems all work together. Many organizations have deployed point solutions. But without integrated solutions, they find it difficult, if not impossible, to progress toward truly optimized operations.

Not all AI is created equal

It’s hard to overstate how AI is already transforming industry. AI-enhanced analytics are game-changing technology, and Generative AI is ushering in a new era of collaboration and decision-making. Gen AI will guide the human intellect and become the user interface for all human-machine communication in industrial operations.

But, how can you make sure its insights are validated and trustworthy? Not all AI is created equal. To make AI meaningful to your optimization efforts and drive long-term results, you need solutions that offer:

1. High-quality data management: Reliable, contextual data is the bedrock of effective reliability strategies. High-quality data ensures that every decision is based on accurate, real-time information. AI helps organize and analyze this data to reveal patterns and insights. Those insights help you make the big improvements.
2. Seamless integration: Integrating AI with existing data systems allows for a unified approach to asset management. A vendor-neutral, secure platform ensures that all data sources are easily accessible and usable, supporting quick decision-making and comprehensive visibility into operations.
3. End-to-end reliability management: A holistic reliability strategy covers the entire asset lifecycle—from design and engineering to operations and maintenance. AI-enhanced analytics provide real-time predictive and prescriptive insights that ensure maintenance decisions are simulated against multiple scenarios and tailored to your business objectives, allowing you to balance risk, cost, and performance.
4. Ease of deployment: AI solutions should be easy to deploy and integrate with other systems. This ease of use facilitates collaboration across different functions, ensuring that all departments can contribute to, and benefit from, the reliability strategy. After all, the ultimate goal of AI-enhanced analytics is to provide the user with actionable insights that lead to tangible results.
5. Scalability and quick ROI: Solutions should be easy to scale and move beyond the pilot phase. When rapidly scaled, companies can see enormous improvements in asset performance, reduced downtime, and optimized maintenance schedules—delivering a quick return on investment.

If you’re curious about the best ways to implement AI-enhanced reliability in your industry, you can read our comprehensive whitepaper here. Discover how to elevate your asset management strategy with advanced AI solutions and ensure your business thrives in today’s competitive landscape.