comma CMMS equipment maintenance blog
AI in equipment maintenance, part 2 - ThyssenKrupp MAX
Published 2023-11-27 by Diego Santos (a 4 minute read) | Back to the main page
Introduction
This is the second installment on use-cases of AI and ML applied to equipment maintenance. While we stated on the previous article that there are plenty of pilot projects but little actual application of these concepts in the average company, this time here's another practical perspective of something that has been commercially available since before AI was cool.
Let's look at how ThyssenKrupp (TK) has been providing a predictive maintenance package called MAX since 2015 (I saw some references to 2015 although the official PR is from 2016).
What is it about?
If you're like me, you hate waiting for elevators almost as much as NYC office workers if this article is to be trusted (16 years total waiting for elevators, really?!). So many wasted minutes checking your phone and cursing the Gods of gravity!
Well, what if I told you there's a way to make elevators faster, smarter, and more reliable? Sounds too good to be true but the future is here thanks to a revolutionary technology called MAX (not a paid advert, I'm sincerely enthusiastic about it!).
MAX stands for minimum frustration
MAX is a product developed by TK, one of the world's leading elevator and escalators manufacturers (they call it urban mobility solutions and you probably have been on one of their systems even if you don't know it). MAX is a cloud-based predictive maintenance solution that uses sensors and artificial intelligence to monitor the health of elevators in real time. It collects and analyzes data such as door movements, trips, power-ups, calls, error codes and other operational parameters. It then uses AI to assess the remaining lifetime of key components and systems and determines which parts will require maintenance and when that maintenance must occur before the part fails. Note that it operates from a live database with datapoints from ALL connected elevators, not just yours - a sort of crowdfunded experience for the benefit of all.
The result is that it is now possible to predict component issues before they happen. This way, elevator maintenance technicians can be proactive rather than reactive and schedule service visits at the most convenient times for customers. According to TK, this solution also provides information transparency to customers, who can access data on their elevator performance and maintenance history through a web portal or a mobile app. Really cool.
The benefits of MAX are huge: TK estimates that MAX can cut elevator downtime by up to 50%, which translates into more availability, reliability, and efficiency and, in turn, less frustration, stress, and wasted time for elevator users (you and me!). If those numbers are true, the benefits of this technology are undeniable.
Conclusion
From what I can gather, there is verified practical benefit from using this system. It also seems to have the proper balance between extra cost and ROI. As such, I believe it is a good and absolutely real-life (as opposed to proof-of-concept) application of AI actively and commercially used to optimize equipment maintenance. Everyone's prediction is that we will see more and more of these and I'm excited to see what else is coming. In the meantime, we'll continue to find real-life examples of AI applied to equipment maintenance, so keep checking back!
Further reading on this topic
Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new - I'd never heard of MAX before! The intention is not to deeply analyze these solutions but rather to get you to know about them and point you in the right direction for further information.
Until next time, stay safe and keep moving!
If you want to learn more about MAX and how it works, start here:
https://www.tkelevator.com/global-en/newsroom/press-releases/max-in-every-new-elevator-and-escalator-thyssenkrupp-elevator-is-expanding-its-digital-platform-max-114446.htmlhttps://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/thyssenkrup-steelmaker-transforms-elevators-using-ai/