Industrial manufacturers and critical infrastructure operators are trapped in a costly cycle of reactive maintenance. Unplanned downtime now drains an estimated $1.4 trillion annually, roughly eleven per cent of revenue for the world’s largest companies, according to Siemens’ True Cost of Downtime report.
Here, Dr. Chris Wright, head of research and Development (R&D) at thermal fluid specialist Global Heat Transfer, explains that one often overlooked contributor to these losses is the gradual degradation occurring inside thermal-fluid systems. He also argues that predictive maintenance strategies must evolve to monitor fluid health alongside mechanical performance.
Siemens reports that outages are draining 11 per cent of total revenue from the world’s 500 largest companies. This adds up to roughly $1.4 trillion, an amount comparable to the yearly economic output of a major industrial country such as Spain. These figures show that reliability is no longer simply an engineering objective, but a strategic priority. Fortunately, solutions can be found in predictive maintenance.
Academic studies suggest predictive maintenance programmes can reduce downtime by up to 12 per...
Overcoming downtime with thermal fluid management
