I’m in a continual battle with the ice maker in my refrigerator.

I know, that’s a shocking revelation. I hope you can continue your workday after learning this.

But this will be the fourth time in three years that I must call for service and pay for the repairs. It’s not like I mistreat the ice maker — I push the paddle, ice falls into my cup, and I’m done. But every so often it decides to leak water into the ice bin, freeze cubes together, block the spinny thing and clog the dispenser. Or it gets moody and decides not to make ice at all. I just think when a product is made, it should work. Is that unreasonable?

I’m pretty sure you agree, because you work hard to produce quality products. To do that, you must maintain your assets and make hundreds of decisions daily that create opportunities to make asset performance more efficient. Each opportunity might be small, but added all together, they can lead to increased value in the form of doing more, wasting less or reducing risk.

Our cover story in our April 2023 magazine explains how to use maintenance data to identify opportunities to improve asset performance and find opportunities that provide small advantages with large, aggregate value. It’s clever, really. Finding these incremental gains can provide a huge competitive advantage, especially now when factors such as inflation and supply chain disruptions are making business more challenging.

Data is the key ingredient in this advancement in asset performance management — using data to spot opportunities to improve asset function, then deciding which opportunities bring the most value and how to execute these plans. The result is smart maintenance, better asset health and ultimately, quality products.

I wonder if my refrigerator’s manufacturer has an improved, effective asset performance management system in place now. Until next time….

Theresa Houck

Executive Editor

The Journal From Rockwell Automation and Our PartnerNetwork

Join Executive Editor Theresa Houck for our “Automation Chat” podcast, “9 Industrial Automation Trends in 2023.” She discusses technologies and strategies, including no-code automation, 5G, additive manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, blockchain, wearables and more. Listen on your favorite podcast app or on the web.

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