Why Machine Learning Is the Future of Predictive & Industrial Maintenance

There’s no arguing that preventing failures and accidents is critical for industry. Unexpected incidents can grind operations to a halt for extended periods of time and necessitate expensive repairs. Just 12 hours of downtime for an oil production platform could cost six to eight million dollars in lost production opportunity alone. A single day of grounding for a plane costs roughly four to five million dollars. Because of these disruptions, industrial sectors are always on the lookout for newer, better maintenance methods, and the approach on everyone’s lips right now is predictive maintenance. 

While everyone agrees on the name, there is less consensus on what it means or how to implement it. But to truly unlock the potential of predictive maintenance, it needs to be paired with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).