About Connected Data
Connected data in MaintainX® refers to a set of features, modules, and practices that bring equipment and sensor data into MaintainX automatically. Instead of a historical view built from data your teams enter manually, you get an accurate, real-time view of asset condition.
With connected data, your team can move past reactive, calendar-only maintenance. You can catch problems before they cause downtime, trigger work from real usage and condition data instead of guesswork, and build the kind of accurate, continuous equipment history that reliability programs and root cause analysis depend on.
Data Sources​
Where asset data comes from depends on how your equipment is instrumented. MaintainX supports multiple paths in, allowing you to start with the sources you already have and add more as you connect additional equipment.
You can bring data in from:
- Operational technology (OT) systems: Programmable logic controllers (PLCs), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) platforms, and MQTT brokers, connected through an OT data connector. For more information, see About OT Data Connectors.
- Purpose-built sensors: PHANTOM® wireless vibration sensors, connected through a fully managed integration with ERBESSD INSTRUMENTS®. For more information, see About the ERBESSD INSTRUMENTS Integration.
- Your own systems: Using the MaintainX REST API to create and update automated meters.
Connected Data and Maintenance Maturity​
Maintenance maturity describes how far a team has moved from reacting to equipment failures toward preventing and even prescribing the right fix before a failure occurs. Connected data makes the later stages possible. Each stage depends on equipment and sensor data reaching MaintainX automatically instead of your team entering it manually.
Most maintenance organizations move through the same progression as they mature:
- Reactive: Fixing equipment only after it fails. For example, a pump seizes and a technician creates a work order after the fact.
- Preventive: Servicing equipment on a fixed calendar or usage interval. For example, a maintenance plan schedules a conveyor inspection every 90 days, regardless of how much it's been used.
- Condition-based: Acting on real-time equipment data. For example, an automation creates a work order the moment a vibration reading crosses a threshold you define.
- Predictive: Forecasting failures with data analytics and machine learning. For example, MaintainX reviews trends in an asset's sensor history and flags a likely bearing failure before it happens.
- Prescriptive: Automatically recommending and scheduling the right repair action. For example, instead of only flagging the coming failure, MaintainX recommends the specific repair task and parts needed.
For a deeper look at each stage, see Maintenance Maturity: Why It Matters and How to Increase It on the MaintainX blog.
Required Modules and Features​
Connected data is a combination of several MaintainX modules and features. Each one handles a different part of the path from a raw signal to completed work:
- Meters: Store the readings that reach MaintainX from your data sources, whether that's a PLC tag, a sensor, or your own system calling the REST API. For more information, see About Meters.
- Monitoring Points: Group the meters tied to a single physical location on an asset, such as a motor bearing, so related readings stay organized as your equipment gets more instrumented. For more information, see About Monitoring Points.
- OT Data Connectors: Bring PLC, SCADA, and sensor data into MaintainX automatically, so meters update without manual entry. For more information, see About OT Data Connectors.
- Automations: Turn an incoming meter reading into an immediate action, such as creating a request or work order, or updating an asset's status. For more information, see About Automations.
- Maintenance Plans: Use a usage trigger to generate preventive work orders from actual runtime or cycle counts instead of a calendar. For more information, see About Maintenance Plans.
- Reporting and Asset Health Reports: Turn the resulting equipment history into reliability metrics you can track over time and share with stakeholders. For more information, see About Reporting and About Asset Health Reports.
The modules and features you need depend on your account plan and the data sources you use. For more information, contact your MaintainX representative.
Notable Use Cases​
Three common use cases illustrate how thousands of maintenance teams have used equipment in MaintainX to address recurring maintenance challenges. These examples stand out because they demonstrate how equipment data can support data-driven workflows and a shift from reactive to proactive maintenance.
- Set Up Usage-Based Maintenance: Usage-based maintenance uses maintenance plans to trigger a work order from actual runtime hours, cycle counts, or production activity instead. Assets that run harder get serviced more often, and assets that run less aren't over-maintained.
- Set Up Automated Asset Status Changes: Automated status changes use automations to update an asset's status the moment a state signal, such as running to faulted, reaches MaintainX as a meter reading. The same automation can also create a request, a work order, or a notification at the same time.
- Set Up Condition-Based Maintenance: Condition-based maintenance uses automations to create a request or work order automatically when a condition, such as temperature, vibration, or pressure, crosses a threshold you define. This lets your team respond to early warning signs instead of a failure.
Connected data makes it possible to act on equipment condition in real time, forecast a failure, or trigger maintenance from actual equipment usage using a data-driven approach.
These are the most common patterns, but they represent a starting point rather than a limit. Connected data is built to let maintenance teams extend it into solutions shaped by their own unique business and operational needs.
Measure the Impact of Connected Data​
Once you've connected your equipment and sensor data to MaintainX, several existing reports show whether it's making a difference:
- Asset health metrics: When you Set Up Automated Asset Status Changes automations, MaintainX updates an asset's status continuously without any manual reporting required. Asset Health Reports, such as availability, downtime, and mean time between failures (MTBF)/mean time to repair (MTTR), reflect real conditions in near real time. Compare these metrics before and after connecting an asset to see the effect on reliability and unplanned downtime.
- Reactive-to-preventive shift: Work orders generated by Set Up Condition-Based Maintenance and Set Up Usage-Based Maintenance automations that use templates carry a Work Type of Preventive, while unplanned fixes are typically logged as Reactive. Track that ratio in Reporting over time to see whether connected data is reducing reactive work.
- Automation activity: Each automation's Action History shows every run, skip, and failure, giving you a direct count of how many requests, work orders, or status changes your connected data is generating.
Use these signals together to identify how your connected assets and data sources are performing.