Machines Watching Machines: The Value of AI-based Predictive Maintenance in Reducing Manufacturing Downtime

According to the World Bank, in 2017 (the latest year data are available) the worldwide manufacturing economy added $13.17T in value to the global GDP. Various sources estimate that anywhere from 4 percent to 20 percent of manufacturing capacity is lost to unplanned downtime (depending on the particular company and industry). Choosing a conservative 5 percent number averaged across all companies and industries means that the $13T number is 5 percent lower than it otherwise might be - an astonishing $693B in global productivity lost to unexpected maintenance issues for manufacturers. Reducing that number even slightly has huge potential benefits to the world's economy. Of course, manufacturers have always worked to minimize equipment failures resulting in unplanned downtime and have developed multiple techniques and processes along the way to mitigate the impact.