Predictive fleet maintenance: what it is, how to implement

With the advance of logistics technologies, predictive maintenance is becoming a reality in transport operations.

It is one of the types of maintenance that brings greater durability to the vehicles, but it also creates a knowledge base for the fleet.

With the operational and condition data collected through it, calculations of availability, reliability and vehicle replacement forecasts are carried out with clarity and precision. See below:

• What predictive maintenance is;
• What it is for;
• How predictive maintenance works;
• Why it is important to do it;
• When to choose predictive maintenance;
• How to implement predictive maintenance in the fleet.

What is predictive maintenance?

It is a type of fleet maintenance that predicts failures of a vehicle or its components. It uses operational data and condition monitoring of the assets to estimate when a failure is likely to happen, seeking to anticipate a problem by identifying changes in items such as vibration, temperature, oil and other condition signals.

It is common to confuse this model with preventive maintenance. The difference lies in the way the vehicle is assessed:

• In preventive maintenance, the inspection is carried out by the driver based on a vehicle checklist, and services are performed whenever a certain mileage driven is reached.
• In predictive maintenance, the decision depends on reading the asset's condition, supported by technologies and operational data, such as tags, vibration sensors, ultrasound, oil analysis and temperature measurements.

One of the known goals of predictive maintenance is to reduce the services performed, as well as to have lower labor and parts purchase costs.

What is predictive maintenance for?

Determine repairs in advance

Before a repair service becomes necessary, due to the breakdown of the vehicle or one of its components, the technologies and data of predictive maintenance can indicate the situation, and you can plan ahead, scheduling the work in advance.

Besides reducing damage to the vehicle, it is an action that increases the fleet's safety, as it prevents the vehicle from going out on routes before it has been serviced at the workshop.

Maximize vehicle availability

“Vehicle availability” is the term used to talk about the number of vehicles available for use in your fleet's demands.

With failure prediction and services done in advance, you maximize their use and prevent them from becoming unavailable. Something that could also cause late deliveries and low productivity in the operation.

Calculate the reliability level of the vehicles

The reliability of a vehicle represents how capable it is of performing its function over a given time interval.

In fleets, the vehicle is used for freight transport and the transport of goods between different points. To understand the reliability of a model and make, you need to consider the time it will be in operation, its failure rate and its mean time between failures.

By recording the predictive maintenance data in fleets, all this information will be at hand for you to calculate and understand whether the vehicles are, in fact, fit to make the expected trips.

Understand the life cycle of the fleet's vehicles

The vehicle's life cycle begins when it is acquired and ends when it reaches a state in which it is no longer safe or viable to use. It is important to understand how long this lasts so that the purchase plan for new vehicles is made and carried out.

Besides having failure prediction with predictive maintenance, you also start to have the information needed to understand the vehicle's replacement forecast. Therefore, confirming its useful life: the life cycle.

How does predictive maintenance work in the fleet?

It has three stages:

1 – Assessment of temperatures, oil, vibrations, etc.

All these items can indicate the existence of problems that, by other means, would not be identified.

For example, changes in the vibration levels of tire rotation can show a lack of vehicle alignment or the existence of wear in the bearings, among other problems.

2 – Diagnosis of the problem

Just like a medical diagnosis, this is what happens in this stage of predictive maintenance: the problem is detected, determining its severity, origin and solution.

3 – Trend analysis of the problem

Finally, the trend analysis of the problem's occurrence is carried out. This can be done through the maintenance indicator “MTBF”, the mean time between failures.

This way, the planning of maintenance and preventive services is more efficient, taking place only when necessary and reducing the fleet's costs.

Why is it important to do predictive maintenance?

Less time spent on maintenance services

Having failure prediction prevents the vehicle from breaking down or staying stopped longer to be fixed.

Even with preventive maintenance, which greatly reduces repair services, some services are performed according to the mileage record and may not even be necessary at that moment.

That is why predictive maintenance brings this benefit: reducing time in the workshop.

Lower costs for parts and inventory replenishment

If fewer maintenance services are needed, fewer parts and inventory items will be used. At least, they will be used more appropriately and avoiding waste.

In addition, with the prediction of time between failures, you can also use the information to forecast demand for parts, buying them only when necessary and without losing resources through a product expiring, for example.

In the end, these are actions that lead to lower costs in this area.

Greater vehicle durability

By preventing failures from happening, fewer corrective maintenance services are needed, and this keeps the vehicle's factory characteristics for longer. Something that increases the vehicle's useful life.

When to choose predictive maintenance?

When you have resources available to carry out the implementation, you should consider including this type of maintenance in your fleet. Although it does not need to be exclusive, it is worthwhile to have the resources needed to assess the condition of the vehicles through it.

One of the signs to start using predictive maintenance is when some vehicles in the fleet begin to show problems very frequently, without being correlated.

Measurements of vibrations and even of noise will give a more precise diagnosis of why the problems are happening, effectively discovering their origin.

How to implement predictive maintenance in the fleet?

Start gradually and follow these three steps:

1 - Identify the vehicles with problems at the most critical levels

These are the ones that generate the most costs for the operation and can benefit the most from the predictive maintenance process. This is because it will avoid the problems and provide the information needed to identify why they happen.

The sooner you get to the core of the problem, the faster and more effectively it will be solved and prevented in the other vehicles. In addition, it will reduce your fleet's idle time.

2 – Understand what type of monitoring the vehicle needs

High and medium criticality levels are the ones you should prioritize when applying predictive maintenance. However, you should also identify which type of monitoring will be put to best use: vibration, temperature, oil, battery test, and so on.

Use the logic of where the apparent problem is. For example: if it is in the tires, vibration tests may be the best alternative, since the vehicle's vibration is a direct impact of the tires' rotation.

As you evaluate the results, you will also have a better understanding of the next steps.

3 – Evaluate the results

Set goals and metrics beforehand to keep track of the results of your implementation. Some of the most common are the reduction of corrective maintenance or the reduction of maintenance costs in general.

From these definitions, you find which maintenance indicators you need to analyze and what to measure and calculate to achieve the desired results.

Learn how to carry out complete and efficient maintenance management in our Maintenance management guide for fleet managers.