Predictive and preventive maintenance tools spot potential disturbances in critical production equipment before they turn into major headaches, allowing food and beverage plants to repair, rebuild or replace an asset on a schedule rather than facing an unplanned line shutdown. Consequently, processors are moving from calendar-based checks and reports to condition monitoring of their assets in real time.
“Food and beverage plants are realizing the failure of a critical asset in a production line can add thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost productivity, even if the disturbance results in just a minute of downtime,” says Katie Moore, global industry manager for food and beverage at GE Intelligent Platforms.