Industry 4.0 carries an enormous promise. Connected sensors feeding real-time data into intelligent systems, machines that predict their own failures, production lines that self-optimise in response to demand signals, supply chains that adjust without human intervention. The technology is real, the investment is substantial, and the case studies are credible.
So why are so many manufacturers still fighting the same battles they were fighting a decade ago? Why does unplanned downtime still cost Fortune 500 companies an estimated $1.4 trillion per year, according to the Siemens True Cost of Downtime 2024 report?
Why do maintenance teams with IIoT sensors on half their assets still spend most of their time reacting to failures rather than preventing them?
The answer, more often than not, has nothing to do with the sensors or the algorithms. It has to do with the asset management infrastructure underneath them. The EAM layer, the systems, data models, and practices that govern how equipment records, spare parts catalogues, work orders, and maintenance decisions are organised and acted on, was built for a different era. [Read more…] about How Equipment Asset Management Practices Must Evolve for Industry 4.0 to Deliver on its Promise