Predictive operations replace reactive maintenance on India's shopfloors

Predictive operations go beyond simple alarms or scheduled maintenance. It is based on the ability to observe asset behaviour continuously, detect early deviations from normal patterns, and act before failures occur, ultimately optimising performance in real time.

- Dr. Ashish Manchanda

In the traditional industrial landscape, the mantra has often been “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”

This reactive approach—responding to equipment failure only after it occurs—is increasingly becoming a liability. In a world of tight margins and just-in-time manufacturing, downtime is the ultimate enemy. The shift toward predictive operations enables engineers to anticipate failures before they occur, optimising maintenance schedules and extending asset life.

Problem with reactive operations

For decades, industrial operations have largely operated in a reactive mode. In this model, equipment is repaired after failure, downtime is addressed after production loss, energy inefficiencies are discovered after bills arrive and faults are investigated after alarms escalate.

While traditional automation improved control and repeatability, it did little to anticipate failures or inefficiencies. As systems became more complex by integrating electrical, mechanical and digital layers, the cost of reacting late increased significantly.

What predictive operations really mean