The foundation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is closely linked to the digitalization of industrial processes. Tasks that were once completed manually have been modernized through advanced technology.
From these developments, Online Asset Monitoring has emerged as a crucial solution for ensuring optimal performance via continuous analysis of equipment conditions.
With this approach, maintenance teams can remotely monitor real-time data on asset conditions—such as vibration, RMS velocity, and temperature.
By utilizing predictive techniques, maintenance managers gain faster decision-making capabilities and enhanced operational control, among other benefits.
Continue reading to learn how online asset monitoring can optimize your industrial operations operations.
What Is Online Asset Monitoring?
Online Asset Monitoring involves a blend of vibration and temperature sensors, IoT technology, data science, and software that gathers, processes, and analyzes information.
These insights are then converted into actionable data, visualizations, and reports that reflect equipment performance and health.
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These data points are gathered by sensors mounted on machines that continuously measure temperature, runtime, vibration, and energy consumption. The collected data is then processed and sent to a centralized system platform.
Unlike traditional monitoring methods that depend on complicated spreadsheets and manual calculations, a solution like Tractian's offers a complete view of the entire asset tree—removing inefficiencies and ensuring a more streamlined approach to maintenance.
With remote access to real-time insights, maintenance managers can identify anomalies before they escalate, enabling predictive measures instead of reactive ones.
By combining data science with real-time monitoring, companies enhance asset reliability, increase team productivity, and lessen unexpected maintenance costs arising from unplanned downtime.
Increase in RMS Velocity Identified by the Platform
Differences Between Online and Offline Monitoring
When using offline sensors, data collection occurs periodically and in person through a vibration analyst. This method is inherently less precise because failures can happen between inspections, and many of these measurements are taken randomly.
To minimize this risk, continuous monitoring is essential.
For instance, in traditional vibration monitoring, outcomes rely significantly on the analyst's expertise. While experienced professionals are vital, technology improves their capabilities by delivering real-time, data-driven insights.
By utilizing online monitoring, the maintenance team reduces time spent on manual inspection routes and obtains comprehensive, real-time diagnostics—removing guesswork and enhancing decision-making.
Advantages of Online Monitoring
As we've pointed out, the impact of technology on industrial operations is undeniable. Tasks that once took hours or days can now be completed in minutes, with all the necessary information available instantly available.
Here are some key advantages of Online Asset Monitoring:
1. Greater Asset Control & Extended Equipment Lifespan
Improved data collection allows maintenance teams to gain deeper visibility into their assets, helping them detect anomalies and potential failures early.
This means you’ll always know when and where to take action, ensuring that the right tools and resources are available for repairs before breakdowns occur.
You also don't need to worry about manual data collection or Excel spreadsheets. The system automatically provides the insights you need, streamlining workflows and reducing administrative burden.
2. Reduced Maintenance Costs & Minimized Downtime
Unforeseen failures can result in significant financial losses, yet they can be prevented.
By integrating predictive systems with data science, online monitoring can cut maintenance costs by up to 60% and reduce unexpected failures by 55%.
This not only extends the lifespan of your assets but also that of their individual components, resulting in greater operational efficiency and cost savings.
Transitioning to predictive maintenance is now essential for maintaining a competitive edge.
3. Increased Asset Reliability
Reliability is a fundamental principle of maintenance. By calculating asset reliability, maintenance managers can determine how dependable a piece of equipment is, ensuring that production proceeds as anticipated.
In other words, the more data you have on an asset, the more reliable it becomes for your operation.
Tractian solutions automatically record key asset data, calculating Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and overall reliability for each machine.
This gives maintenance teams precise, data-backed insights into operational performance, ensuring everything remains under control.
For a deeper dive into reliability, check out this comprehensive guide.
4. Automation of Maintenance Activities
When companies embrace technology, all processes become more efficient—including maintenance management.
In day-to-day operations, issuing work orders (WO) for scheduled inspections, part replacements, or oil changes is common.
By automating these tasks, businesses can optimize labor, time, and resources, ensuring maintenance execution is more efficient and cost-effective.
For example, imagine a specific asset requires an oil change every 40,000 hours of operation. Rather than tracking this manually,, a single automated work order can be generated.
The system’s runtime counter will detect when the asset approaches the service threshold, automatically notifying the responsible team.
It’s also essential for maintenance managers to have automated access to reports and technical assessments.
These reports—generated in PDF format—contain key data such as operating time, asset health timeline, energy consumption, failure history, and more. This level of automation ensures maintenance procedures are fast, streamlined, and well-documented.
5. Improved Asset Tree Management
The aim of asset management technology is to enhance asset tracking and data management, leading to more dynamic and efficient maintenance operations.
Having a clear view of the asset tree allows maintenance managers to centralize data and gain full control over processes. By accessing RMS velocity trends, temperature variations, and estimated energy consumption, they can monitor equipment health in real time.
Managers can oversee the entire asset tree remotely, receiving real-time, mission-critical insights into asset conditions. No need for physical data collection—everything is accessible from a single platform.
Which Equipment Should Be Monitored?
If you’ve read our guide on the Criticality Matrix, you already understand how it helps determine the importance of an asset in your production chain. You also know that if a critical asset fails, it can disrupt the entire operation.
To determine which equipment requires monitoring, the ABC methodology is utilized. This framework evaluates three key factors:
- Failure frequency – How often does the asset break down?
- Failure detectability – How difficult is it to identify the issue?
- Failure impact – How severe are the consequences of a failure on overall operations?
Based on these criteria, assets are classified into three categories:
- A (Critical assets) – Equipment that is essential to the production process and must be continuously monitored.
- B (Moderate-impact assets) – Machines with an observable but manageable effect on operations.
- C (Low-impact assets) – Equipment that does not significantly impact production flow if it fails.
Once you’ve identified your critical assets, the next step is implementing an Online Monitoring System for predictive asset management.
The higher the reliability of an asset, the lower the risk of failure, thereby preserving its condition and extending its lifespan. This proactive strategy prevents costly downtime and ensures operational stability.
Check out our guide: "In Search of Zero Downtime"
Online Monitoring Software (CMMS)
Using a CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) in daily maintenance operations goes beyond essential tasks—it integrates and optimizes the entire industrial workflow, including planning, control, operational performance, and productivity.
Using an online monitoring platform for predictive maintenance management is an effective strategy for detecting failures before they occur. With Tractian's platform, maintenance managers can instantly access critical asset data, such as:
- RMS velocity trends
- Temperature variations over time
- Operational runtime (hour meter tracking)
This data is automatically analyzed and displayed through intuitive graphs, providing real-time insights as needed.
Additionally, the system offers a clear view of asset status, showing which machines are running, in alert, stopped, or completely shut down.
It also detects and categorizes various failure types, including:
- Mechanical wear
- Unbalance
- Misalignment
- Mechanical looseness
- Anomalous peaks
- Gear wear
- Bearing failures
- Lubrication deficiencies
- Deposits and contamination
- Filter degradation
By integrating real-time monitoring with predictive analytics, companies can eliminate inefficiencies, reduce failures, and optimize asset performance—all while ensuring maximum uptime and operational efficiency.
These insights are collected 24/7 by sensors and transmitted in real time to the monitoring platform.
To ensure accurate and reliable data, it’s crucial to verify that sensors are correctly placed. When properly installed, the system sends maintenance teams instant notifications via a cellular network whenever an anomaly is detected—without relying on industrial WiFi.
This approach provides end-to-end security, ensuring data integrity and operational safety. All information is fully encrypted, and only authorized personnel can access it.
Ready to level-up your maintenance? Learn how Tractian's CMMS can help you reduce costs and extend the lifespan of your assets.
