A skilled maintenance team knows how to keep machinery up and running. However, in many cases, a manufacturing facility’s maintenance management program often lacks the budgeting support it needs.

Nonetheless, interest in predictive maintenance adoption is beginning to accelerate, according to the 2025 State of the Industry report from PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies.

“Some end users remain skeptical of a predictive or proactive approach to maintenance programs because of the cost,” says Jorge Izquierdo, PMMI’s vice president, market development. “Frequently, they are hesitant to move away from established preventive maintenance routines. But when predictive systems are integrated into human-machine interfaces (HMIs) that include simple, actionable alerts, end users see real progress.”

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One of the top goals for most consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies is achieving overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), which largely depends on actionable data. A PMMI study titled 2024 Data Acquisition, Sharing and Utilization asked interviewees how their companies planned to use data. Of the respondents, 63% stated that their companies want to utilize data to enhance OEE and packaging productivity, 20% indicated that data collection would be employed for predictive maintenance, and 17% sought to improve the visibility of their machinery’s current performance.

The collection of real-time data is essential to a company’s success, since it can boost predictive maintenance outcomes, yield management and efficiency. In the data acquisition study, participants stated that quality data is a key aspect of OEE, particularly for end users. However, legacy equipment, cost constraints and variable data sources often complicate the implementation of automation and capital equipment projects, which makes collaboration with OEMs essential for seamless data capture and interoperability.

Study participants also emphasized the need for gradual implementation, ensuring projects have management buy-in and are based on capturing quality data that genuinely impacts performance. In addition, the study participants emphasized the importance of stakeholder buy-in to ensure the most effective data utilization, citing the fitting of modern programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to legacy machinery as an example. 

More Ways to Improve OEE 

Servo-driven actuation is also gaining momentum, especially among larger CPG companies, according to PMMI’s 2025 State of the Industry report, because it offers a mix of tighter motion control, faster cycle times, and easier integration with PLCs and HMIs to boost overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

Additionally, by eliminating many pneumatic functions, servos sidestep the leaks, compressor maintenance and energy waste issues that can affect machinery. At the same time, these digital drives can feed performance data into predictive-maintenance dashboards. The trade-off is a higher upfront price, which may deter some smaller, cost-conscious buyers from adopting pneumatics.

PMMI study respondents also shared examples of successful maintenance program implementations, particularly when diagnostic alerts were delivered in plain, actionable language via an HMI and tailored to an operator’s skill level — improvements that help close the gap between data collection and corrective action. As these systems become more intuitive and aligned with customer workflows, proactive maintenance is expected to gain more traction, particularly among large, highly automated operations.

Today, more OEMs include predictive options in their standard offerings and often bundle them with service contracts. Some OEMs also offer structured service plans that include remote diagnostics, regular maintenance visits, and full-service contracts.

“Predictive maintenance remains a valuable, evolving aftermarket feature,” Izquierdo says. “In fact, 35% of end users surveyed indicated they plan to increase spending on predictive maintenance.”

For example, during PMMI’s data acquisition study, a representative from a large multinational CPG company reported that their firm had successfully rolled out a new data capture process across 31 plants over the course of a year. At that time, the company was embarking on an additional 17-factory rollout using a gradual implementation process, where it refined its OEE platform, while working closely with a SaaS (software-as-a-service) provider.

The CPG company also leveraged the experience gained from the initial deployment and carried out the same process through parallel workstreams. The CPG respondent stressed that the eight-month deployment was being conducted in-person to produce better results, greater engagement with tools, and superior user-developed applications for the OEE platform.

Both OEMs and end-users have recognized the value of data and the advantages of collaboration in achieving seamless data capture and interoperability. The collection of real-time data can be used to monitor the operation and condition of machinery, enabling predictive maintenance and improvements in machine performance. Above all, the overarching goal of new data acquisition and utilization processes was identified as enhancing operational efficiency.

CPG companies looking for increased OEE should attend PACK EXPO East, Feb. 17–19, 2026, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The show will feature:

• Live demonstrations of packaging and processing machinery
• A new Containers and Materials Pavilion showcasing the latest solutions to refresh brands
• Advanced automation, robotics and controls
• Printing, labeling and coding technologies
• Integrated processing solutions

Learn more and register now for PACK EXPO East. Early registration costs $30; after Jan. 23, 2026, the price increases to $130.