{"id":10329,"date":"2021-03-18T17:30:22","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T16:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=10329"},"modified":"2021-03-18T17:30:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T16:30:22","slug":"predictive-maintenance-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2021\/03\/18\/predictive-maintenance-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Using predictive maintenance to schedule downtime"},"content":{"rendered":"

A constant challenge for fleets is managing their trucks\u2019 total cost of ownership. Predictive maintenance and prognostics can help fleets better schedule downtime and lower their overall costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Today, when a commercial vehicle is broken, it goes into the maintenance bay for repair leaving it unavailable for use. But the industry has begun shifting its focus to predictive maintenance and vehicle prognostics, preventing unscheduled downtime from leaving fleets short on assets.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe next step of the evolution is that we start doing prediction based off of use,\u201d explained Scott Bolt, vice president of product management for Noregon Systems. \u201cFor instance, in our roadmap, we have condition-based maintenance to where you are basically planning to avoid things. Between avoiding a problem and having a breakdown is your predictive phase. Then, the final phase is maintaining the vehicle so it doesn\u2019t break. Today, we\u2019re in the fix-it-because-it\u2019s-broke phase.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Noregon has developed TripVision Uptime to help fleets better predict in real time when an asset is going to break and schedule out vehicle downtime. During a virtual walk-through demonstration, Alec Johnson, product manager at Noregon, explained that TripVision will show fleets different types of scoring on the current health of the vehicle, safety, and predictive health. The technology informs a fleet dispatcher, maintenance manager, or technician how a truck is operating today and when it has a critical issue that will significantly degrade performance. TripVision also offers updates on compliance, safety, accountability (CSA) violations, emission faults, and fuel performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fleet maintenance managers or senior leadership can also leverage TripVision to see whether staff members are paying attention to predictive faults and if potential problems could have been mitigated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can retroactively go back, look at the predictive faults, and then see that this actually did escalate, and it was predicted beforehand,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cLeadership can then say, \u2018I need to work with my team to get them to be more proactive.\u2019 And rather than just focusing on the trucks that are broken down today, they can also start spending some time looking at those predictions and trying to route the trucks that aren\u2019t so critical now but will likely deteriorate fairly quickly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of its dashboard feature, TripVision also provides a high-level overview of issues affecting the health, safety, or performance status of fleet vehicles. This feature, Johnson noted, is particularly impactful for larger fleets and OEs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou could drill in some issues that are most important to you,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe you\u2019re trying to reduce costs, or you care a lot about fuel economy, or you\u2019re trying to be really forward looking and mitigate issues before they arise. What\u2019s cool about TripVision and our algorithms is the more data we aggregate, the more predictions we can make for your trucks. And the more data we aggregate, the more we can fine-tune our algorithm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to analyzing the data, fleets can access Noregon\u2019s platform via their telematics solution. Noregon is then able to call out important data points and look at the trends down to specific makes and equipment models. On top of that, master mechanics at Noregon also scrutinize the data to determine when certain issues are expected to escalate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Managing fleet TCO<\/span><\/h3>\n

A challenge that remains constant for fleets is managing their trucks\u2019 total cost of ownership (TCO), with maintenance and repair (M&R) as the highest variable and volatile cost of a fleet operation, noted Matthew Wiedmeyer, director of Fleet Services at Fleet Advantage. Fleet Advantage provides leasing solutions, asset management, and consulting for Class 8 truck fleet operators.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cM&R costs vary from truck to truck, but history tells us there are specific core areas where M&R becomes very costly, especially in vehicles that are approaching 300,000 miles,\u201d Wiedmeyer explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Fleet Advantage, high-cost M&R items include:<\/span><\/p>\n