Bearing Reliability

I had to read the following statement about 100 times:

"Happily, around 90% of bearings outlive the equipment in which they are installed. An estimated 9.5% are replaced in service, leaving a mere 0.5% that actually fail in service - usually because they are poorly lubricated, subject to excessive contamination or even as the result of inadequate installation procedures." - Source: "Early bearing failure detection reduces machine downtime by Phil Burge, marketing and communications manager at SKF., Plant Works and Engineering Magazine UK. (14 June 2019)

At first I thought - NO WAY!

Then I thought "well if anyone should know the life stats of a lot of bearings over many years it would be SKF". I am certain that they have the data to back up this statement.

I did a few more searches and ended up at Evolutions Technology Magazine by SKF with a December 31, 2019 announcement about a new "partnered rotating reliability" partnership offer that extends ways beyond the traditional bearing supplier business model.

I quote the Evolution article: "Most industrial bearings outlive their machines, but some do fail, and 90 percent of those do so because they are wrongly specified, installed, lubricated or used. Under a REP contract, the customer pays a fixed monthly or quarterly fee that is dependent on SKF meeting agreed targets for machine production level, uptime or other KPIs. The all-inclusive fee covers provision of bearings, seals, lubrication and condition monitoring. SKF’s engineering expertise ensures the ideal specification and application of all elements, which is important. REP can be applied to both long-established and modern equipment, including conveyor belts, pumps, crushers, paper machines, steel or pulp mills and railway bogies, among others.

The scope for performance improvement through fee-based business models has been enhanced by digitalization.

The scope for performance improvement through fee-based business models has been enhanced by digitalization. SKF can provide inexpensive, easy-to-use condition monitoring units and automatic, fully integrated lubrication systems. These connect with the SKF Cloud and the customer’s existing production management system to generate useful real-time data that can be acted upon remotely.

In the traditional transaction-based business model, a supplier’s profits depend on the number of parts sold rather than on improvements in a machine’s performance. This, however, creates a fundamental conflict of interest, as longer component life means fewer sales for the supplier. SKF is now offering a forward-thinking, fee-based Rotating Equipment Performance (REP) service, in which both SKF as a supplier and its customers benefit from maximizing a machine’s productivity, reliability and efficiency. Click here to visit Evolutions

Welcome to the future! Bearings as a Service (BaaS)!

SKF is offering a brand new business partnership model that is based on mutual benefit with each party doing what they do best. This is not simply a long-term bearing supply deal, this is SKF: "We know a lot about Bearing Reliability and we can provide it for you" and Customer: "We need Bearing Reliability and would rather focus our efforts on our own core competencies where we make more money. Bearing Reliability is NOT one of our core competencies"

Win-win!

You are NOT in the bearing business. SKF is.

Let SKF focus on bearings while you build more widgets or produce more of whatever you produce.

SKF promises a service level! I have no pricing but I am guessing at a much lower monthly cost that your organization could possibly match even if you had the competencies for purchasing, cataloging, storage, handling, inventory management, installation, anti-counterfeit program, lubrication, fluid analysis, vibration analysis, ultrasound, asset condition monitoring, criticality, and reliability among some of the things your organization would require to match the depth of service being offered.

The recipe is a very good one and I suspect you will soon be buying compressed air by the cfm rather than purchasing, operating and maintaining large compressors. You will be purchasing gallons per hour of flow rather than pumps and valves. You will be buying horsepower by the hour rather than electric motors.

And think of all that data, creating and validating models. AI and Machine Learning assisting in the value delivery through improving the consistency and evidence for decision making.

Digitalization is opening up brand new business models.

What are doing to take advantage of the new business models digitalization is opening up?

Let me know if you would like to chat.