20 Mind-Boggling Stats on the Cost of Industrial Downtime

Industrial downtime resulting from asset breakdowns and required maintenance has been a persistent pain point for manufacturers. For most companies, the cost of industrial downtime is a major concern. However, not all downtime is created equal. Unplanned downtime, caused by unforeseen failures, incurs much higher costs than scheduled downtime, due to delayed maintenance turnarounds.

The resulted long production haul is a significant drain on the productivity of critical assets and workers while depleting inventories and delaying product delivery. Beyond tangible, direct consequences, unexpected asset failures also create significant stress and can be the underlying cause for many worker safety incidents. In the long run, continuous downtime threatens to damage company reputation and leaves less time and energy for innovation.

Ineffective maintenance strategies due to poor asset visibility are a primary contributor to extensive industrial downtime. Traditionally, companies reactively deal with the problem only after it has occurred. As such, they have to spend long hours fixing serious issues and/or waiting for spare part orders. Performing preventive maintenance on a regular basis is an alternative to help reduce unplanned downtime. Nevertheless, since it is difficult to decide how often machine services should be performed, this can be inefficient and lead to unnecessary production loss.

Today, the Internet of Things (IoT) and new technologies are now giving rise to predictive maintenance strategies. Smart sensors outfitted on equipment constantly report vital parameters on asset health and functioning status. By monitoring and analyzing sensor data and operational data from existing systems, breakdown patterns can be diagnosed to anticipate future failures. Leveraging these valuable insights, companies can strategically schedule maintenance and replenish spare parts. This helps minimize industrial downtime, both planned and unplanned, and associated costs while optimizing asset availability and lifetime.

The infographic below recaps 20 startling facts about the cost of industrial downtime and how IoT-enabled predictive maintenance can come to the rescue.