Although predictive maintenance is attracting increasing interest, a surprisingly small 6% currently see great benefits in this technology. The others consider it (still) too low in terms of performance or they think it still requires more development. Even more astonishing is that two-thirds of the surveyed companies say they already use the principle or offer it as a service. 20% could not express an opinion about predictive maintenance at all. What’s more, Thomas Rohrbach, Managing Director of Staufen Digital Neonex GmbH , believes the benefits are generally overrated. “The vast majority of machine failures can be attributed to factors that predictive maintenance cannot solve, most notably operator errors.” However, the survey also showed that half of the respondents predict a bright future for predictive maintenance over the next two to five years.

The Bearing Point consulting service carried out a similar survey of 74 companies in January 2018. The result was almost identical. They stated that the topic is discussed rather than implemented. 84% of respondents are looking into it, but only one in four companies had already completed projects in the area. The strongest pro-argument was plant availability here was well.