You do not need to monitor everything. You need to monitor the machines that stop money. For most SME plants that's a surprisingly short list — and getting the list right is the difference between a programme that pays for itself and one that quietly gets cancelled.
Score each asset on three questions
Give every rotating asset a 1–5 score against these, then multiply:
- Production impact — if it stops now, does the line stop, slow, or carry on?
- Replacement lead time — is there a spare on the shelf, or a twelve-week order?
- Failure history — has it caused unplanned stoppages in the last two years?
Watch for the hidden single points of failure
The highest-scoring assets are rarely the biggest ones. Effluent pumps, compressed-air compressors, extraction fans and cooling-tower drives regularly outrank headline production machines because there is no redundancy and no spare.
Ask your maintenance team a simpler version of the question: which machine do you most dread getting a call about at 2am? That answer is usually correct.
Keep costs down deliberately
If budget is the constraint, monitor the critical assets only and be disciplined about it. Ten well-trended machines beat sixty measured sporadically. You can widen coverage later by adding days to the route once the programme has proved itself.
Expect the list to change
After six months of data you will know more about your plant than the original scoring assumed. Assets get promoted, some get dropped, and the route settles into something that reflects reality rather than the org chart.