At its simplest, monitoring the condition of the machinery and equipment means visual checks by the staff, thermal imaging, vibration measurements, oil analyses and other methods of measuring that help to control the condition of the machinery and equipment.
The aim should be to combine information from different databases so that the records of measures performed will help to monitor the condition of the machinery and equipment and guide the maintenance of the sawmill.
Documentation
Long-lasting and difficult disruptions are recorded and analysed carefully but it might be necessary to look for information from several sources. Smaller daily repairs are not necessarily recorded in the systems because the requests for repairs are made directly to the maintenance organisation or the relevant person in production.
Regardless of how the condition monitoring of machinery and equipment is organised and which measuring devices are used, the most important element is the analysis and documentation of the monitoring results.
The internet of things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (IoT) provides opportunities to further develop maintenance. In the future, it will be possible to automatically analyse the machinery and equipment connected to a process in more detail and implement proactive maintenance measures as a result.
This will change the way maintenance and servicing is done. However, this will not eliminate the possibility of unexpected breakages that are caused by ambient conditions but rather provides an additional tool by which to manage the lifecycle of your machinery and equipment.
Of course modern automation systems can be used to provide data on production machinery and that data can be analysed in real time and reported but this requires the maintenance system to be part of a more extensive integrated system.
