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From Reactive to Proactive: How Intelligent Maintenance & Operations is Transforming Manufacturing

07 Apr

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For decades, manufacturers operated under a reactive maintenance model. They addressed equipment failures only after they occurred or followed rigidly scheduled servicing without real-time insight into asset health.

While the approach was functional, it often led to unplanned downtime, excessive repair costs, and lost productivity.

This compelled manufacturers to adopt proactive maintenance, which focuses on actively identifying and eliminating root causes of equipment wear and tear through design improvements and process optimizations while improving asset reliability. The downside? It led to over-maintenance.

The advent of Industry 4.0 introduced a paradigm shift towards predictive maintenance. Going a step forward, it leverages IoT sensors, AI analytics, and cloud computing to anticipate machine breakdowns before they happen, optimizing finances and operations simultaneously.

The evolution in maintenance strategies holds significant potential for manufacturers and the future of production. This blog post explores this impact in detail.

Common Traditional Maintenance Challenges

Lets understand the key challenges that reactive maintenance poses to manufacturers.

  • High downtime costs and inefficiencies:
    Unplanned downtime is one of the most expensive challenges in manufacturing. Research shows it costs an estimated $50 billion each year. In addition to financial losses, poor maintenance strategies can reduce a plant’s overall productive capacity by 5%-20%, creating disruptions across the supply chain.
  • Lack of connectivity with legacy machines:
    Many manufacturers rely on older industrial equipment not built to integrate with modern digital technologies, such as IoT sensors, digital twins, and edge computing. As a result, plants often struggle with fragmented datasets or disjointed systems—each of which delays troubleshooting and decision-making.
  • Compliance and safety risks:
    Manufacturing is a heavily regulated industry and non-compliance can lead to fines, lawsuits, or operational shutdowns. Unfortunately, many manufacturing units still use manual checklists and paper-based audit logs, while traditional maintenance portals lack automated compliance tracking, increasing vulnerability to regulatory risks.

Why Manufacturers Need Smarter Industry 4.0 Maintenance Strategies

To fully capitalize on manufacturing digital transformation and overcome the limitations of reactive maintenance, manufacturers need an Intelligent Maintenance & Operations (IMO) solution that optimizes asset performance, boosts productivity, and prevents disruptions before they affect production. A robust IMO strategy offers several key benefits:

  • Predictive analytics and IoT monitoring: One of the core components of this transformation is Industrial IoT in maintenance, which integrates sensors that detect early warning signs of equipment failure, enabling timely interventions and reducing unplanned downtime
  • Real-time asset insights and automated workflows: Maintenance tasks are optimized so the workforce productivity isn’t hindered and employees aren’t exposed to hazardous conditions
  • Digital twin technology: Virtual replicas of physical assets simulating different operating conditions to address scenarios where resource and energy consumptions are high preemptively

Convert Maintenance Into a Strategic Advantage With Cherrywork IMO

Cherrywork’s Intelligent Maintenance & Operations (IMO) platform enhances Total Predictive Maintenance (TPM) by enabling manufacturers to perform autonomous inspections, scheduled servicing, data-driven improvements, and quality-focused maintenance.

Cherrywork’s IMO platform enhances data-driven operations in manufacturing, allowing real-time data flow from the shop floor to the top floor, providing actionable insights for streamlining maintenance tasks, collaborating effectively, and making quick decisions

The seamless integration with SAP ECC/S4 HANA ensures real-time data flow from the shop floor to the top-floor, providing actionable insights for streamlining maintenance tasks, collaborating effectively, and making quick decisions.

Key features of Cherrywork IMO

  • User-customizable checklists that remove the need for manual forms on the shop floor and in the field
  • An Android app for tracking notifications, work orders (WO), and measurement documents while providing worker guidance
  • A unified namespace and IoT connectivity for managing asset hierarchies and enforcing business rules for real-time data streaming
  • A Gen AI field assistant that delivers summarized operational and maintenance insights to enhance productivity and ease of operation
  • Digital twin technology and predictive maintenance for real-time condition-based monitoring, automated alerts, and AI-driven anomaly detection

How Cherrywork IMO delivers value

By leveraging the features, manufacturers gain significant operational benefits, including:

  • Equip technicians with an intuitive, mobile-friendly tool that allows them to capture and visualize data on the go, both online and offline
  • Manage all permits and work orders and ensure interlocks for any activity with digital job safety checklists and approvals using AI-driven maintenance solutions
  • Receive real-time updates and automated Non-Conformance Reports (NCRs) for any calibration or checklist deviations

From Challenges to Efficiency: A Smarter Way Forward

Viatris, a global pharmaceutical leader, streamlined its smart factory maintenance operations using Cherrywork IMO, overcoming critical inefficiencies such as manual data recording in SAP ECC post-calibration and delayed alerts for technicians. By implementing Cherrywork IMO, Viatris achieved:

  • 67% reduction in time spent locating spare parts
  • 1-hour decrease per shift in work order closure efforts
  • Seamless mobile access to SAP PM functions (Notifications, Work Orders, TECO)
  • Optimized maintenance planning through multiple plan versions and real-time collaboration
The results speak for themselves: Better asset management and predictive maintenance in manufacturing.

Ready to reduce downtime and maximize productivity? Download our free white paper to learn how manufacturers can implement an Intelligent Maintenance & Operations (IMO) solution for long-term profitability and sustainability.

Cherrywork Industry 4.0 suite of digital applications have digital twins that enable organizations to optimize asset operations by providing real-time insights, predictive capabilities, and simulation capabilities. They help improve asset performance, reduce maintenance costs, enhance safety, and support data-driven decision-making throughout the asset lifecycle

Read about Industry 4.0 Portfolio

Would you like to do the same for your organization? If yes, then reach out to us at talk2us@cherrywork.com

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