A Closer Look at Predictive Maintenance Today, predictive maintenance is a concept that is generating interest and building momentum, yet it still raises a number of questions. Specifically, what is predictive maintenance? How can it benefit your organization? How can you get started? Predictive maintenance, also known as predictive asset maintenance or predictive analytics, is the idea of capital equipment makers using embedded sensors combined with connectivity, data communications, advanced analytics, and remote diagnostics to predict equipment breakdowns before they occur. The practice uses very advanced statistical and data-mining techniques to analyze large volumes of data to best predict potential failures down the road. Yet predictive maintenance is much more than just the idea of capitalizing on device connectivity, which is the basis for the Internet of Things (IoT) and the related Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) trends. IoT and IIoT imply that value can be created from machine-driven big data in an industrial or manufacturing setting through device communications. Predictive maintenance takes this idea a big step further by using available data to predict equipment failures and take action before they can occur. This helps avoid adverse—possibly catastrophic-effects to safety, productivity, and profits. Warning: Danger Ahead To picture predictive maintenance in action, think of a supplier of capital equipment products in the manufacturing, automation, or material handling industry who embeds a broadband sensor in one of its products. This sensor collects data related to the performance of the product and the surrounding environment and provides valuable trend information. But, hidden in this vast amount of data—even a single sensor can provide mountains of data—can be clues that something is wrong. This is true even if the product is operating at a normal level of quality and throughput. Predictive maintenance is the perfect approach to finding these hidden clues. […]