New trends in modern equipment management

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With the development of industrialization, economic globalization, and informatization, new breakthroughs have been achieved in mechanical manufacturing, automatic control, reliability engineering, and management science, giving rise to new trends in the scientific management of modern equipment. Grasping these new trends is of great practical significance for advancing the modernization and scientification of equipment management in our country. This new trend is mainly manifested in the following aspects. I. Trends in the informatization of equipment management: Management informatization relies on advanced information technologies and sophisticated information devices as a foundation for reorganizing and transforming management processes. It enables the full integration of management techniques with information technologies, thereby achieving automation, digitization, and intelligence throughout the management process. The informatization of modern equipment management should be based on rich and comprehensive management information, and by utilizing advanced computer and communication devices as well as network technologies, it should make full use of social information service systems and information service services to support equipment management. The informatization of equipment management is an inevitable aspect of modern societal development. The essence of the trend toward information-based equipment management is the implementation of comprehensive information management for equipment, which is reflected in the following aspects: 1. Informationization of equipment investment evaluation. When making investment decisions, enterprises must conduct thorough technical and economic evaluations, and information-based equipment management provides an efficient and reliable method for such evaluations. The statistical information and technical-economic analysis data required for decision-making on various investment options are obtained from the database of the equipment management information system, providing a comprehensive and objective basis for equipment investment and thus ensuring the scientific nature of those investment decisions. 2. Informatization of the evaluation of economic and social benefits of equipment: Due to the enormous amount of work involved in evaluating the efficiency of equipment use, many companies do not carry out such evaluations. The development of an equipment information system enables the accumulation of information regarding the economic and social benefits associated with the use of equipment. By leveraging computers to process large amounts of data in a short time, the efficiency of evaluating the effectiveness of these devices can be improved, thereby providing scientific monitoring methods for their proper operation. 3. Informatization of equipment usage: Informatized management makes it easier and more comprehensive to record various pieces of information related to equipment usage. This usage data can be fed back to the equipment manufacturers through their customer relationship management systems, thereby improving the usability, cost-effectiveness, and reliability of the machinery. At the same time, by sharing and exchanging this information, device users contribute to improving the management and use of the devices. II. Trends toward the socialization, specialization, and networking of equipment maintenance. The essence of the socialization, specialization, and networking of equipment management lies in establishing an equipment maintenance supply chain, thereby changing the previous production models that were characterized by completeness on a large scale as well as on a small scale. With the development of large-scale and intensive production, equipment systems are becoming increasingly complex, and their technical complexity is rising as well. Effective maintenance requires various specialized skills as well as the establishment of an efficient maintenance system in order to ensure the proper operation of the equipment. The traditional approach to maintenance organization can no longer meet the requirements of production; it is necessary to establish a socialized, professional, and networked maintenance system. The socialization, specialization, and networking of equipment maintenance can improve the efficiency of equipment repair, reduce the need for storage of spare parts by the entities that use the equipment as well as the number of maintenance personnel required, thereby enhancing the efficiency of equipment use and reducing capital utilization. III. Application trends of reliability engineering in equipment management. The development direction of modern equipment is automation and integration. As equipment systems become increasingly complex and higher performance is demanded of them, the requirements for their reliability inevitably increase as well. Reliability is a science that studies the patterns of variation in the quality parameters of technical equipment and systems, and on the basis of such research, it develops methods to ensure the required service life and zero failure rate with minimal time and cost. Reliability science establishes theories for selecting the optimal solution based on the prediction of system status and behavior, in order to ensure the desired level of reliability. Reliability denotes the machine’s ability to maintain the required quality standards throughout its entire service life. Unreliable equipment obviously cannot function effectively, as downtime caused by damage to individual components or a decline in technical performance below acceptable levels can result in significant losses, or even catastrophic consequences. Reliability engineering predicts the behavior and operating conditions of equipment by studying the changes in its initial parameters over time, thereby estimating the reliability of that equipment under actual operating conditions; this helps to prevent unexpected shutdowns of the equipment as well as significant losses and catastrophic accidents. IV. Application Trends of Condition Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis Technologies. Equipment condition monitoring technology involves monitoring various parameters of equipment or production systems, such as temperature, pressure, flow rate, vibration, noise, lubricant viscosity, and consumption levels. By comparing these values with the data provided by the equipment manufacturers, it is possible to assess the performance of the equipment. This approach enables early prediction, analysis, diagnosis, and resolution of equipment failures, allowing issues to be addressed before they cause problems. It helps to reduce downtime due to equipment failures, improve the reliability of equipment operation, and extend the operational life of the equipment. Equipment fault diagnosis technology is a technique for understanding and assessing the condition of equipment during its operation, determining whether it is functioning properly overall or in certain parts, detecting faults and their causes at an early stage, and predicting the development trend of such faults. With the development of science, technology, and production, mechanical equipment operates under increasing stress; production efficiency and levels of automation keep rising. At the same time, such equipment becomes more complex, with its various components becoming more closely interconnected. Often, a minor fault in one part can trigger a chain reaction that results in catastrophic damage to the entire equipment as well as the environment surrounding it. This not only leads to significant economic losses but also poses a threat to human safety, with extremely serious consequences. By utilizing equipment condition monitoring techniques and fault diagnosis technologies, faults can be detected in advance, thereby avoiding significant economic losses and accidents. The application of this technology has profoundly transformed the existing maintenance system, saving a significant amount of maintenance costs. For a long time, China has primarily relied on planned maintenance for mechanical equipment; as a result, repairs were often carried out when they weren’t necessary, which not only wasted time and money but also reduced the performance of the equipment ； What needed to be repaired wasn’t fixed, which not only reduces the equipment’s lifespan but also leads to accidents. By adopting fault diagnosis technology, it is possible to change from \"reactive maintenance\" to \"proactive maintenance\", and from \"planned maintenance\" to \"predictive maintenance\". V. The trend toward shifting from routine maintenance to predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance management of equipment represents the direction of development in modern equipment management practices. It aims to reduce equipment failures, lower maintenance costs, and prevent unexpected damage to production equipment by utilizing condition monitoring and fault diagnosis techniques to carry out comprehensive maintenance on the equipment while it is operating normally. In industrial production, reducing the accident rate through predictive maintenance and ensuring that equipment operates in optimal condition is a necessary condition for completing production according to the planned schedule, as well as an effective way to improve a company’s economic efficiency. The development of predictive maintenance is closely related to the informatization of equipment management, as well as the advancement of equipment condition monitoring technologies and fault diagnosis techniques. The large amount of information required for predictive maintenance is provided by equipment management information systems; by monitoring the condition of the equipment, various parameters such as temperature, pressure, flow rate, vibration, noise, lubricant viscosity, and consumption levels can be obtained. Expert systems then analyze these parameters to enable predictive maintenance of the equipment. The aforementioned new trends in equipment management are in line with the technical and economic characteristics of current social production, and these trends have led to an improvement in the level of equipment management, as shown in Table 1. Table 1 Improvement in equipment management levels driven by new trends. The several development trends in modern equipment management mentioned above are not isolated from one another; they are interdependent and mutually reinforcing: the application of information technology in equipment management can promote the professionalization and socialization of equipment maintenance ； Predictive maintenance is also inseparable from equipment fault diagnosis techniques and reliability engineering ； The specialization in equipment maintenance has further promoted the research and application of fault diagnosis techniques and reliability engineering. References: 1. Pronikov. Machine Reliability. Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1983. 2. Tu Lechang, Zhang Yuenan. On the Development and Application of Equipment Inspection and Diagnosis Systems. Metallurgical Equipment Management & Maintenance, 2004.1. 3. Zhao Huabing, Tang Lingli, Lü Ligong. Preventive Maintenance Management for Equipment in the Penglai 19-3 Oil Field. China Shanghai Oil & Gas (Engineering), 2003.10. 4. Liang Gongqian. Changes in Maintenance Theories and Concepts in Modern Enterprises. Journal of Northwestern Polytechnical University, 1999.9