Let’s talk about predictive maintenance, but from a different perspective?

 This week I had a general health check-up, as I do every year! Couldn’t expect less from me, as a mechanical engineer and asset management aficionado! Here we are talking about my main asset, my heart, the pump that keeps my other organs operating properly.

The heart is the main asset of the human body, it pulsates with life, but I also summarized what is “under the hood”. The interesting thing is that when we go through an experience like this, we see how the techniques of predictive management of machines are the same for our body.

And even as we are in the asset management area – maintenance, operation and facilities – we envision that we are like the many doctors I passed by throughout the day. However, we are doctors of machines.

My check-up day experience started with the main one: heart echo. And, I listened to the doctor dictate to his assistant the calibers of veins and arteries and the sizes of the heart’s atria. Here, immediate result, all right with my pulsating life pump. In industry it is like an ultrasound of pipes or tubing machines.

Then, checking fluids, blood, and urine, so we have a battalion of indicators – cholesterol, LDL, HDL, blood count, uric acid, glucose, vitamin D and so on – to correlate with my historical data and results from others. exams – in this case, waiting for results yet. Anyway, I’m sure everyone will be under control, except for cholesterol and others due to some habits we acquire with age – pizza, wine, a nice pasta… oops, how hungry!

After a few minutes in the waiting room of the human body review workshop, lets see how everything is under the hood! Echo of the complete abdomen! Everything ok too, even liver fat drops from level 3 to level 1 – 10 kilos less with a lot of effort – bike and crossfit – man, I’m tired….

And then we go to the test of the machine. Put the machine on the test bench and see how far it can produce efforts… In this case, 10 min, with an inclination of 35º, speed of 6 km/h on an ergonomic treadmill with a lot of wires stuck to the chest… almost finished with shortness of breath, the machine doctor said that everything was normal, as expected… In that case, I was thinking, they could create my digital twin and test it on the computer, it would be less tiring….

And almost at the end, some measurements, abdomen diameter – no comment – and carotid caliber – in this case I passed with flying colors – without any risk of affecting my intelligence center!

And finally, with the human asset management expert, I got the news of a final comparison that my machine has a real age and that projected age is 3-5 years older! A cold shower?

It would be, if I weren’t an engineer, practical and objective: it’s the indicator I needed to improve eating habits and practice more exercise – after all, no pain, no gain! And that’s what our job and system were made for, and that’s why predictive maintenance is so effective: identifying and correcting fault states so machines run better and longer.

After this experience, my reflection: when will we be able to apply IoT to our body, as we do with machines and equipment in our customers, so that we can monitor these parameters online and see the real-time result of our attitudes and habits?

In the face of technological advances, maybe a few years and what do you think? And how is the management of your main asset, huh? All up to date?

Isn’t it time for a checkup? Here’s the tip!

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