Set Up Usage-Based Maintenance
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Usage-based scheduling is currently in Beta and available only to select MaintainX® customers. For more information, contact your MaintainX representative.
Usage-based maintenance is work that you schedule based on actual usage data such as runtime hours, cycle counts, or production counts. It's often preferable to scheduling work at fixed intervals (calendar-based maintenance), which can lead to over-maintaining assets that run less than expected and under-maintaining assets that run more. In MaintainX, you can build a maintenance plan that creates work orders based on usage data that you capture as meter readings.
What You Need Before You Start​
- Assets in MaintainX for the equipment you want to manage with usage-based maintenance.
- Meters created in MaintainX and mapped to your usage tags (for example, runtime hours, cycle counts, or production counts), typically fed by an OT data connector or the MaintainX REST API. For more information, see Smart Tag Mapping for OT Data.
Step 1: Identify Your Assets and Meter Types​
Match each asset to the usage meter that best represents its wear. For example:
| Asset Type | Usage Meter |
|---|---|
| Motor | Runtime hours |
| Press | Cycle count |
| Vehicle | Distance |
| Packaging line | Units produced |
Before you build a maintenance plan, confirm that the counter behind each meter is accurate and persistent, and doesn't reset unexpectedly. A counter that resets will also reset the maintenance plan's usage trigger.
Step 2: Set Up Your Maintenance Plan​
Usage-based maintenance uses a recurring preventive maintenance schedule that lives in a maintenance plan with a usage-based schedule type. Create a maintenance plan for the asset and configure these settings for your usage-based use case:
- Schedule type: Select Usage based to create work orders from meter readings alone. Select Time or Usage based to create a work order from whichever comes first.
- Usage trigger: Select the meter that represents the asset's usage, then set the trigger condition and value. For example, Increases by (from last trigger) 500 to trigger maintenance every 500 runtime hours.
- Next Due: If you want to align the plan with maintenance your organization already has planned, adjust this value instead of letting MaintainX calculate it from the current reading.
Step 3: Validate Your Maintenance Plan​
Pilot the maintenance plan on a few assets with one meter type before scaling to your full asset list. Confirm that:
- MaintainX creates work orders at the usage thresholds you expect.
- The underlying meter reading is climbing consistently, without unexpected resets or gaps.
- The generated work order's start and due dates give technicians enough lead time to plan the work.
Once you're satisfied with the results, duplicate the maintenance plan and adjust it for additional assets or meter types.
Migrate an Existing Calendar-Based Maintenance Plan​
If an asset already has a calendar-based maintenance plan, you don't need to create a new one. Edit the maintenance plan instead and migrate it in two stages.
Add a Usage Trigger Alongside the Calendar Schedule​
Change the schedule behavior to Based on last completion. Then change the schedule type from Time based to Time or Usage based, and add a usage trigger as described in Step 2: Set Up Your Maintenance Plan.
With this schedule type, MaintainX creates a work order from whichever trigger is reached first. Your team keeps its existing calendar-based coverage while you confirm the usage trigger fires at the right thresholds.
Switch to a Usage-Based Schedule​
Validate the usage trigger as described in Step 3: Validate Your Maintenance Plan. Once you're satisfied with the results, edit the plan again and change the schedule type to Usage based. Work orders now generate from actual usage alone.
Editing a maintenance plan only affects future work orders. Work orders already generated under the calendar-based schedule aren't changed. For more information, see Edit a Maintenance Plan.
Known Limitations​
When setting up usage-based maintenance, be mindful of the following known limitations:
- Currently, there's no way to mass-create usage-based maintenance plans across many assets at once. Set them up one asset at a time, or work with your MaintainX representative on options for your organization.
Common Issues​
Watch for the following common issues as you configure and monitor usage-based maintenance:
- Meter and usage misalignment: If a meter doesn't accurately reflect real equipment usage (for example, it undercounts cycles), the maintenance plan triggers later than it should. Validate the underlying counter before relying on it.
- Overlapping schedules: Combining a time-based plan and a usage-based plan for the same maintenance task can generate duplicate work orders. Use Time or Usage based on a single plan instead of running two separate plans side by side.