Nothing lasts forever, and this goes double for industrial infrastructure. Outdated equipment and facilities create a number of risks to your business operations, ranging from lower productivity to safety hazards. Being proactive about your equipment needs helps keep you on the forefront of your industry as a competitive business partner. Here are some tips to help you form a plan of action.

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Assess Your Current Infrastructure

The first step is to audit your current equipment and facilities. You won’t know where you need to be unless you understand where you’re at right now.

Conducting regular audits and inspections will give you a better idea of what needs immediate attention. These should be performed frequently, especially on equipment that sees heavy use.

One important thing to consider is regular maintenance practices. Predictive maintenance software allows you to monitor the health of your equipment, and it can help catch issues before they happen.

Upgrade Without Disrupting Operations

After you’ve performed audits, it’s time to tackle the hard part. How are you going to perform critical upgrades on aging infrastructure without sacrificing time and productivity?

Weigh the pros and cons of doing phased upgrades versus full-scale replacements. This depends entirely on your business and what you can afford in the short term.

Phased upgrades allow your operations to continue functioning normally or at a slightly reduced pace, but fully replacing outdated equipment will take much longer. Full-scale replacements, on the other hand, will take longer and require shutting down operations entirely, but it may result in an overall boost to your company’s productivity and output once it’s finished.

Leverage Technology to Modernize Equipment

If a full-scale rehaul of your current equipment is out of the question, you still have options. You can begin incorporating modern technology into existing systems to significantly improve efficiency and reliability.

Aging equipment that still runs fine can be retrofitted with smart sensors that can provide a number of critical data points. Key measurements can be made on machines that cannot do so themselves. Temperature, power consumption, and units per hour are examples of some things these smart sensors can measure. They can also detect signs of mechanical failure, such as small vibrations or movement that may require immediate attention.

To view data and analytics of your machines from a single, easy-to-view source, adopt cloud-based systems. This will enable you to make informed decisions quickly without resorting to scrambling for data that’s spread out across your facility.

Of course, these implementations are easier said than done. However, if your aging infrastructure is causing you problems, or you’re looking to get more out of your equipment than before, it’s worth investing in, and so is having a skilled workforce. Get in touch with us to learn how we can help staff your upgraded facility.