Ingredion Adopts AI to Detect Failures and Boost Machine Uptime

Challenge

Ingredion’s operations rely on hundreds of machines running around the clock across multiple facilities.

At the North Kansas City plant, teams faced significant roadblocks that traditional maintenance tools couldn’t address:

• Hard-to-reach assets caused delays in inspections
• No early warnings from current methods—failures were often caught too late
• PMs missed subtle issues like alignment problems or bearing wear
• Production losses mounted quickly when equipment went down

In one case, a critical pump with no spare parts on hand failed, leading to a full three-day shutdown. The team knew they needed a better way to predict and prevent these breakdowns.

Solution

Ingredion partnered with Tractian to roll out real-time condition monitoring at key plants. With vibration sensors and AI diagnostics, their teams now get early alerts on issues like unbalance, looseness, or lubrication problems—before they turn into full-blown failures.

With Tractian, Ingredion:

• Avoided 168 hours of downtime through early warnings
• Caught failures on critical pumps and other assets using AI-powered detection
• Took corrective action with confidence, thanks to clear, guided recommendations
• Reduced manual inspections and made better use of maintenance resources

“There were some issues that I would say, if not for having Tractian, we would have never noticed… For example, a lubrication problem, we could go out and lubricate it and recheck it on Tractian platform and see that it fixed the problem… It was pretty impressive for that, the results we got early on.”

Jacob Hoffine

Reliability Engineer

Impact

In one facility alone, Tractian has helped Ingredion unlock:

• $1.0M in production savings
• $223K in maintenance savings
• 48–168 hours of avoided downtime across critical equipment
• Clear, tangible ROI from condition-based alerts and faster issue resolution

In one standout case, a looseness defect was detected on a DSM pump—a machine with no backup and a known history of 3-day outages. A work order was issued immediately, and a costly shutdown was avoided.

“I said, ‘We need to do something different. The way we’re doing maintenance—it can be easier, faster, smarter.’ This is the moment to bring in technology. We’re not heading toward job loss—we’re heading toward a new era. Reliability roles are evolving. We're becoming data scientists, not just wrench turners.”

Rafael Padilha

Maintenance & Reliability Director, US/CAN

What's Next

With successful implementations at multiple sites, Ingredion is scaling Tractian solutions across its footprint.

Their teams now operate with better visibility, faster decisions, and less risk—transforming their maintenance approach from reactive to strategic.