When manufacturing leaders and managers begin to think about their plans, they need to base their decisions on real data. For maintenance teams, this means looking back at the data around your own operations to create a maintenance management strategy that builds on what was successful and doubles-down on areas of improvement.

It also helps to know what’s happening in the manufacturing industry as a whole; that way, your own plans can be seen within a larger context and validated by larger trends. This is particularly important when it comes to deciding what maintenance programs and technologies to invest in next year that will make the greatest, quickest impact on improving overall operational productivity, quality and safety.

Here are 12 manufacturing maintenance statistics to consider:

Maintenance Work Execution

• Operator error is blamed for 18% of unscheduled equipment downtime (Plant Engineering)
• 39% of facilities still use paper records for maintenance reports (Plant Engineering)
• An estimated 20.9% of wasted time for maintenance workers is due to traveling to different areas in a factory, with an additional 19.8% as a result of waiting for instructions (Plant Services)
• Scheduled maintenance takes on average about 19 hours a week, with 31% reporting more than 30 hours a week and 14% spending between 20 and 29 hours (Plant Engineering)
• Job growth for industrial machinery mechanics, machinery maintenance workers and millwrights is projected to be 5% (as fast as average) from 2018-2028 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Poor compliance with lockout/tagout (LOTO) procedures ranked fourth in OSHA’s top offenses for fiscal year 2019 (IndustryWeek)

Equipment Downtime

• Unplanned downtime costs industrial manufacturers an estimated $50 billion annually (IndustryWeek)
• Aging equipment is the leading cause of unplanned downtime incidents (Plant Engineering)
• The average cost per hour of equipment downtime is $260,000 (Aberdeen)

Maintenance Approaches and Technologies

• Preventive maintenance is favored by 80% of maintenance personnel as part of a multi-faceted maintenance strategy (Plant Engineering)
• Predictive maintenance can reduce machine downtime by 30%-50%, and increase machine life by 20%-40% (McKinsey)
• Predictive maintenance is one of the top applications for AI-enabled devices and workflows, and is expected to have an installed base of 9.8 million within the next five years (ABI Research)

Want to learn more about operational excellence? Read more about the approach that encompasses all of the solutions you’ll need to maximize efficiency, improve worker safety and create a higher standard of production quality.