Operational Change vs. Equipment Failure in Plastics Manufacturing

Did the setup change, or is the machine failing? Learn four signs that separate an operational change from a developing failure on plastics and packaging lines.

Tractian Inc

Updated Nov 05, 2026

Beverage Plant Maintenance: Why More Isn’t Always Better

Every time you open a healthy machine, you add risk. Here’s how beverage plants can move from calendar PMs to condition-based maintenance.

Tractian Inc

Updated Nov 05, 2026

From Monthly PMs to Continuous Coverage: One Plant’s Story

Tate & Lyle’s San Diego plant ran monthly PMs and still had avoidable failures. See how continuous monitoring saved $446.9K and avoided 84 hours of downtime.

Alex Vedan

Updated Nov 05, 2026

What to Require From AI Predictive Maintenance Software, and How to Prove It in 90 Days

Can't add headcount? Here's what to require from predictive maintenance software, how to test each requirement in a pilot, and what a 90-day evaluation can and can't prove.

Alex Vedan

Updated Nov 05, 2026

What an Hour of Downtime Really Costs, and How to Build the Business Case

Learn what an hour of downtime really costs and how to build a condition monitoring ROI case finance will approve, in six steps with real benchmarks.

Alex Vedan

Updated Nov 05, 2026

Operations Should Pick the Use Case. IT Should Pick the Technology.

Tractian’s VP of Solutions Engineering, a former global IT leader, explains why AI pilots stall when operations picks the technology, and what works instead.

Tractian Inc

Updated Nov 02, 2026

The AI Use Cases Manufacturers Should Fund First (And the Ones That Can Wait)

Most manufacturers fund AI in the order it was pitched. Here’s how to rank use cases by value and feasibility, and why predictive maintenance comes first.

David Walters

Updated Nov 02, 2026

Operational Risk at Scale: What Managing 2,000 Plants Taught Enterprise Leaders

Most multi-site operations run 15–20% short on reliability staff. Lessons from 2,000+ industrial sites on managing operational risk as one portfolio.

David Walters

Updated Nov 02, 2026

Reliability is a Revenue Strategy: The Business Case for Predictive Maintenance in Plastics and Packaging

Downtime in plastics isn’t a maintenance cost. It’s a revenue problem. How to build a predictive maintenance business case your CFO will approve.

Tractian Inc

Updated Nov 02, 2026

What Plastics Plant Managers Tell Me About Downtime

Missed shipments, scrapped resin, calls from customers. What plastics plant managers tell me about downtime, and the three steps I’d take this week.

Dan Zaffos

Updated Nov 02, 2026

The Warning Signs Plastics Equipment Gives Before It Fails

Early warning signs of equipment failure in plastics manufacturing: vibration, current and temperature signals for extruders, molding pumps and more.

Tractian Inc

Updated Nov 02, 2026

Predictive Maintenance for Plastics Manufacturing: Where to Start

Unplanned downtime costs plastics plants more than the repair. Here’s a 5-step plan to start predictive maintenance, from first assets to proving ROI.

Tractian Inc

Updated Nov 02, 2026

Vibration Analysis Services vs. Continuous Monitoring: What Routes Leave Unwatched

Vibration analysis services check assets monthly or quarterly. Learn what failures between routes cost and which assets need continuous monitoring.

Alex Vedan

Updated Nov 05, 2026

What Repeat Trust Says About Tractian’s Growth

Tractian raised a $130M Series D led by Sapphire Ventures, who also led our Series C. Here’s why the best growth is earned twice, and where we go next.

David Walters

Updated Oct 27, 2026

Data Centers Are at Full Capacity. At What Cost?

Record-low data center vacancy means no downtime for preventive maintenance. See why asset reliability is now the only lever operators have left.

Igor Marinelli

Updated Oct 09, 2026

Robotic Arm Monitoring for Automated Manufacturing Cells

Robotic arm monitoring catches reducer, bearing, and motor wear before it stops your cell. Learn what to monitor and how to start, cell by cell.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 24, 2026

7 Benefits of Multimodal Intelligence for Predictive Maintenance

Multimodal intelligence combines vibration, temperature, ultrasound, and energy data to catch failures earlier, cut false alarms, and pinpoint root cause.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 24, 2026

7 Reasons Asset Health Scores Improve Maintenance Prioritization

Asset health scores rank maintenance work by real equipment condition. See 7 ways they cut emergency repairs and focus your team on what matters most.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 24, 2026

Robot Calibration Monitoring: Catch Drift Before Quality Loss

Robots hide joint wear until quality slips. Learn how robot calibration monitoring catches drift early and cuts downtime, scrap, and recalibration costs.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

Best Industrial Energy Monitoring Systems for Manufacturing

Industrial energy monitoring should show which machine used the power, and why. Compare four system types and the five questions to ask vendors.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

Best Manufacturing Data Analytics for Predictive Maintenance

Choosing manufacturing data analytics for predictive maintenance? Evaluate the full loop, from sensor data to closed work order. Here's how.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

Best Unified Asset Health Platforms for Manufacturers

Unplanned downtime costs the Fortune Global 500 11% of revenue. Compare 7 unified asset health platforms for manufacturers and what each one really does.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

Predictive Maintenance for Data Centers: 7 Key Assets

Power problems cause 45% of impactful data center outages, and 87% were preventable. See the 7 assets to monitor first and what to watch on each one.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

How to Prove Capital Efficiency With Asset Health Data

Learn how to prove capital efficiency with asset health data. Tie equipment condition to CapEx decisions, extend asset life, and show finance real ROI.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

8 Best Electrical Monitoring Systems for Industrial Plants

The 8 best electrical monitoring systems for industrial plants, compared on fault detection, installation, power quality, and cost per monitored point.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

Onshoring Alone Won't Save American Manufacturing

You can build a plant in 18 months, but you can't hire 30 years of experience. Here's what reshoring means for thin maintenance crews and how to plan for it.

Dan Zaffos

Updated Sep 24, 2026

Battery-Powered vs. Wired Vibration Sensors: Choosing the Right Monitoring Approach

Compare battery-powered vs. wired vibration sensors on install time, coverage, and 3-year cost, and see where each one fits in your monitoring program.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 04, 2026

How AI Predictive Maintenance Improves OEE

See how AI predictive maintenance improves OEE by catching the equipment degradation behind Availability, Performance, and Quality losses.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 04, 2026

Electrical Monitoring: How to Spot Faults Early

Electrical monitoring catches winding, rotor, and supply faults before vibration ever sees them. The six parameters to trend and the thresholds that matter.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 04, 2026

How to Build a Predictive Maintenance Business Case

Build a predictive maintenance business case finance will approve. How to cost downtime, pick the right assets, model returns, and defend your payback.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 04, 2026

Barcode, RFID, or IoT: Choosing How to Track Your Assets

Barcode, RFID, or IoT for asset tracking? Compare what each technology can tell you, what it really costs, and how to layer them by asset criticality.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 04, 2026

What Breaks When Asset Tagging Isn't Standardized?

Unstandardized asset tagging breaks work order history, wastes wrench time, and erodes CMMS trust. See what fails first and how to fix it for good.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

How Multiple Data Streams Improve Condition Monitoring

One sensor tells you something is wrong. Multiple data streams tell you what, how severe, and when to act. See how they improve condition monitoring.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 04, 2026

Where Your Plants Stand on AI Maintenance Adoption

Discover where your plants really stand on the 4-Stage AI Maintenance Adoption Curve. Get a 3-year roadmap to reach predictive-native operations before your competitors do.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 14, 2026

AI Maintenance Rollout Roadmap for Executives

Stop stalling AI maintenance pilots. Follow the 4-phase Assess, Pilot, Scale, Standardize roadmap to turn unplanned downtime into a forecastable cost your CFO and board can act on.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 15, 2026

How to Build a Board-Ready AI Maintenance Case

Turn AI maintenance data into a board-ready capital case. Use 6 consistent metrics: downtime cost, capex deferral, and EBITDA impact to earn executive approval.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 14, 2026

Unplanned Downtime Is a Financial Risk. Your Balance Sheet Doesn't Know It Yet.

Unplanned downtime scatters costs across your entire P&L, and no report adds them up. Industrial AI made that exposure measurable. Now it's a choice.

David Walters

Updated Sep 03, 2026

The Asset Health Playbook for Beverage Plants

An asset health playbook for beverage plants: rank assets by consequence, monitor failure paths, attach operational context, and turn readings into ranked work.

Tractian Inc

Updated Oct 14, 2026

5 Ways to Prioritize Assets for Capital Investment

Asset prioritization tells you which equipment deserves capital dollars and which can wait. Here's a five-step framework for ranking assets by risk, condition, and cost.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 15, 2026

3 Best Power Quality Monitoring Systems for Industrial Plants

A power quality monitoring system (PQMS) catches the voltage sags, harmonics, and imbalance that quietly destroy industrial equipment. Here's how to choose the right one for your plant.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 28, 2026

6 Steps to Building an Asset Hierarchy for Multimodal AI

Learn how to build an asset hierarchy that powers multimodal AI: the five levels, six build steps, and the mistakes that undermine your maintenance data.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 14, 2026

What Your Asset Register Needs to Pass a Specific Audit

Every audit pulls different fields from your asset register. See what ISO 55001, FDA, OSHA PSM, and insurance auditors actually check, and how to prepare.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

Industrial IoT Security: 7-Step Guide For Manufacturers

Manufacturing is the most targeted industry for cyberattacks. This industrial IoT security guide gives you 7 practical steps to protect your plant.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 28, 2026

5 Best Electrical Power Monitoring Systems for Manufacturing in 2026

Key Points * Where the measurement sits determines the question the data can answer. Metering the switchgear reports what the facility drew, while reading current and voltage at the asset reports which machine is degrading and why. * A threshold alarm and a named fault are different outputs with different labor consequences. One returns the interpretation to your team, and the other arrives with the failure mode, the severity, and the located culprit already resolved. * Power quality data ea

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 15, 2026

6 Benefits of Full-Coverage Asset Protection

Protection extends exactly as far as coverage does. Learn the six benefits of full-coverage asset protection and what to verify before you commit.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 31, 2026

5 Benefits of Multiple Signals Unified in One Multimodal Sensor

More signals don't mean more confidence unless they're captured together. Five benefits of multimodal sensing that disappear the moment signals separate.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 31, 2026

The Top 5 Equipment Failures in Beverage Plants

Motors, gearboxes, bearings, pumps, and compressors cause most beverage plant downtime. Here are the five failure modes behind them, and how to catch each early.

Tractian Inc

Updated Aug 25, 2026

The Top Beverage OEMs: Critical Parts and How to Monitor Them

Krones, Sidel, Tetra Pak, KHS, GEA: what actually fails in each beverage OEM environment, the parts that set the pace, and how to monitor them.

Tractian Inc

Updated Aug 25, 2026

Capex or Opex? Budgeting for Condition Monitoring

Capex vs Opex for condition monitoring: how each model affects deployment speed, budget approval, and risk, and how to choose the right one for your plant.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 19, 2026

The CFO's Guide to Funding a Predictive Maintenance Program

How CFOs fund a predictive maintenance program that pays back in one budget cycle. Four funding models, defensible ROI, and the metrics that win board approval.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 15, 2026

What Industrial IoT Solutions Actually Do

What do industrial IoT solutions actually do? Detect faults, diagnose them, route work, prove ROI. See what separates a real solution from a pile of sensors.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

How Industrial IoT Sensors Actually Work

Industrial IoT sensors turn vibration, temperature, and current into predictive maintenance insights. See how the five layers inside every sensor actually work.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 15, 2026

Sensor Geometry and Debunking Myths about Tractian

Wireless vibration sensors have changed industrial maintenance for the better. But myths about measurement accuracy persist, and Tractian sensor design addresses them directly.

Pedro Badini

Updated Aug 18, 2026

Evaluating Enterprise-Ready Machine Monitoring Software

Evaluate enterprise machine monitoring software on diagnostic autonomy, dual-domain coverage, onboarding cost, and cross-site comparability before you scale.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 08, 2026

Machine Monitoring for High-Mix Manufacturing

In high-mix plants, speed and load change by product, and fixed thresholds break. Learn what machine monitoring must do to stay accurate across changeovers.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 08, 2026

Get Ready to Deploy Predictive Maintenance Sensors Plantwide

Learn what your operation must decide before scaling predictive maintenance sensors plantwide, whether you're starting fresh or expanding a pilot.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 08, 2026

6 Benefits of Power Quality Monitoring for PLC, CNC, MCSA

Poor power quality stops PLCs, wears CNC drives, and distorts MCSA readings. See what continuous power quality monitoring changes about each of those problems.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 08, 2026

IT/OT Convergence: Securing Connected Asset Data

IT/OT convergence connects your plant floor to enterprise data. Here is how to secure connected asset data using the Purdue Model, IEC 62443, and NIST CSF.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 15, 2026

The True Cost of a Condition Monitoring Program

Total cost of ownership for a condition monitoring program includes hardware, installation, software, integration, and analyst labor. See how to price it out.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 14, 2026

How Multimodal Sensing Works in Industrial Plants

See how multimodal sensing works in industrial plants, combining several sensor types into one clear diagnosis so you fix machines on your schedule.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 04, 2026

How to Manage Multimodal Data at Scale Across Your Plant

How to manage multimodal data at scale across your plant: the framework, the pitfalls, and what to look for in a platform that actually delivers.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 23, 2026

What a Bearing Failure Actually Costs You

A bearing failure rarely costs what the bearing costs. See the true price in downtime, damage, and emergency repairs, and how to catch one before it hits.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 04, 2026

Industrial Copilot: How AI Reads Your Machines

An industrial copilot is AI that reads your machines, not the internet. See how it turns vibration, heat, and current into diagnoses your team can act on.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 15, 2026

How to Calculate the Remaining Useful Life of Equipment

Learn how to calculate the remaining useful life of equipment, including the formula, a step-by-step method, and the models that make each estimate reliable.

Alex Vedan

Updated Sep 25, 2026

What to Look for in a Multimodal Sensor

What to look for in a multimodal sensor: the coverage, signal quality, and AI diagnostics that separate real multimodal sensing from the label.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 15, 2026

What is Electrical Protection in Manufacturing?

Electrical protection detects and isolates faults before they damage equipment or hurt people. Learn the types, the faults, and how it works in manufacturing.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 03, 2026

How Digital Twin in Manufacturing Works on the Plant Floor

A digital twin in manufacturing turns live machine data into failures you catch early and repairs you plan. Here is how it works on the plant floor.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 03, 2026

Top 6 Real Root Cause Analysis Examples

Six real root cause analysis examples using the 5 Whys, Fishbone, and Fault Tree Analysis to trace failures to their true cause and stop them for good.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 14, 2026

From 5 Whys to AI Root Cause Analysis

The 5 Whys waits for the breakdown. AI root cause analysis catches the fault weeks early. See how Tractian names the problem, and the fix, before failure.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 03, 2026

6 Benefits of Using Machine Monitoring Software Dashboards

Machine monitoring software dashboards are only as good as the monitoring beneath them. See 6 benefits that turn dashboard data into faster, better decisions.

Tractian Inc

Updated Aug 08, 2026

9 Benefits of Using Machine Data Collection Software

The value of machine data collection software should be evaluated by the decision-quality results delivered. See how capturing machine and electrical data in one place drives real action.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 08, 2026

7 Things to Prove Before Scaling a Machine Monitoring Pilot

A machine monitoring pilot can easily prove detection works, but is that the right proof you need before scaling and rolling it out across every asset you run? Find out here.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 08, 2026

5 Benefits of Condition Data for Production Monitoring Software

Production monitoring software alone reports what happened, but condition data tells you why. See how asset health data paired with production monitoring prevents downtime, speed, and quality losses.

Alex Vedan

Updated Aug 08, 2026

5 Best Asset Health Monitoring Solutions in 2026

Compare the best asset health monitoring solutions on sensing depth, named-fault diagnostics, criticality-based prioritization, and CMMS-agnostic execution.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 13, 2026

Best Machine Health Monitoring Solutions in 2026

Compare the best machine health monitoring solutions on sensing breadth, automated fault diagnosis, and how fast a finding becomes scheduled maintenance work.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 14, 2026

Best Wireless Vibration Sensors for Machine Monitoring in 2026

Compare wireless vibration sensors for machine monitoring on sensing breadth in one device, automated fault diagnosis, coverage, and path to executed work.

Alex Vedan

Updated Oct 13, 2026

The Cost of Skipping Electrical Protection in Manufacturing

Electrical protection isn't a maintenance detail, it's a risk decision. See what skipping it costs manufacturers and the numbers behind closing the gap.

Alex Vedan

Updated Jul 20, 2026