3 Maintenance Management Trends to Watch in 2020
Maintenance Management Trends change often and Maintenance Management is considered an old-fashioned industry. You’ve probably come across headlines proclaiming the end of manufacturing facilities as they struggle to replace their aging workforce.
While it’s true that the average age for management positions in facility management, manufacturing, and similar industries skews higher than other industries, according to the IFMA the average facility manager is 49 years old with 28 years of work experience, these industries are often on the cutting edge of emerging technology.
These industries that rely heavily upon maintenance management are huge drivers of implementing IoT technology, one of the most fascinating industries in tech. In fact, the top 3 use cases for IoT technology were remote monitoring, preventive maintenance, and asset tracking. If you’re in maintenance management, you’re probably very familiar with all three.
2020 will be no different. Maintenance Management, Facility Maintenance, and Manufacturing will be on the cutting edge. Here’s 3 Maintenance Management trends to watch in 2020.
5G
5G is here. Well, sort of. Cellular carriers are slowly implementing the technology that’s up to 10 times faster than 4G.
Right now, for the most part, it’s in select metropolitan areas. But carriers, like AT&T, plan to have nationwide coverage in the first half of 2020. So, how is 5G going to affect the maintenance management industry?
Well, faster internet speeds mean faster flow of information. For companies that span across multiple facilities, being able to download reports or other pertinent information 10 times faster than before is huge. Even more important than speed is reliability. At the end of the day, maintenance management is all about reliability – and cellular networks inside a manufacturing facility have a reputation for being not so reliable. 5G’s reliability and adaptability might be able to change that.
Predictive Maintenance
Every year, technology improves and organizations’ ability to implement Predictive Maintenance becomes easier and more costs effective. 2020 will be no different. More companies will adopt and implement predictive maintenance technology because being able to predict downtime or when maintenance needs to be performed is incredibly valuable to maintenance management.
Predictive Maintenance is possible because of the wealth of data that machine sensors provide, such as an increase in vibration. An increase in vibration picked up by a sensor may indicate that maintenance needs to be performed to avoid downtime.
Cyber Security
Destructive malware attacks are on the rise. In 2019 companies saw an increase in malware attacks by 200%. If that trend continues it’s going to become more and more pertinent that organizations protect themselves from any would be hackers.
So, what does that have to do with maintenance management? Remember when we talked about predictive maintenance above? The technology needed for facilities to move to predictive technology means more ways for a hacker to access a organization’s information.
If your facility is interested in acquiring predictive maintenance or 5G technology, they must consider how those technologies will affect their cyber security and plan accordingly.
Maintenance Management is at the forefront of industrial technology. Like all emerging technology it can be insanely valuable or it can leave an organization vulnerable, depending on how it’s utilized. These are the 3 we believe that any maintenance management team should be aware of and consider as they head into 2020.