Chemical Engineering7 min read

Predictive Maintenance

Predict equipment failures before they happen using vibration, temperature, and process data

What is Predictive Maintenance?

Unplanned equipment failures cost the process industry billions of dollars annually in lost production, emergency repairs, and safety incidents. Traditional maintenance strategies — run-to-failure or calendar-based schedules — either come too late or waste resources.

Operon's Predictive Maintenance uses machine learning models trained on your actual equipment data to predict failures days or weeks before they occur.

"We caught a bearing failure on our main compressor 12 days before it would have caused a plant trip. That single prediction saved us an estimated M in lost production."


How it works

1. Data Integration

Operon connects to your existing data sources:

  • Historians — PI, IP.21, DeltaV, Honeywell PHD
  • Vibration monitoring — CSI, Bently Nevada, SKF
  • DCS/SCADA — real-time process data
  • CMMS — maintenance records, work orders, failure history

No new sensors required — we work with the data you already collect.

2. Equipment-Specific Models

Operon builds models specific to each piece of equipment:

  • Rotating equipment — pumps, compressors, turbines, fans
  • Heat exchangers — fouling prediction, tube leak detection
  • Vessels & columns — corrosion rate prediction, tray damage detection
  • Valves — control valve stiction, relief valve testing prediction

Each model learns the normal operating envelope for that specific asset.

3. Failure Prediction

The system continuously monitors for early warning signs:

  • Anomaly detection — identifies subtle deviations from normal behavior
  • Degradation tracking — monitors gradual equipment deterioration
  • Remaining useful life — estimates time until intervention is needed
  • Root cause analysis — suggests probable failure modes

4. Action Integration

Predictions connect to your existing workflows:

  • Automatic work order generation in your CMMS
  • Priority-ranked maintenance recommendations
  • Spare parts inventory alerts
  • Integration with turnaround planning

Performance

MetricValue
Failure prediction accuracy92%+
Average lead time14 days before failure
False positive rate<5%
Unplanned downtime reduction40-60%
Maintenance cost reduction25-35%

Why it matters

By learning from your actual equipment behavior — not generic failure curves — our models predict failures with the specificity your operations team needs.

"We reduced our unplanned downtime by 45% in the first year. The maintenance team went from fighting fires to planning ahead."


Get Started

Predictive Maintenance works best when combined with our P&ID Recognition and Knowledge Graphs. Our on-site engineers handle the full deployment — typically within 4-6 weeks.

Ready to get started?

Our on-site engineers can have you up and running within your first week.