Does your equipment need preventative maintenance? CSIA member RedViking explores the value of Manufacturing Execution Systems. When it comes to preventative maintenance (PM), some manufacturers may have clipboards to capture data on equipment failures and line downtime, or vendor-provided maintenance schedules recording any issues. Lisa Sobkow, Director of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) for CSIA Certified member RedViking, says that’s a good start. However, operator-collected data may not be the best solution. There is not only a risk of error, but maintenance schedules don’t always pick up on a plant’s unique production cycles. Sobkow tells ReliabilityWeb.com the best way to create a PM schedule for minimizing downtime is to start with actual historical data. To find out how MES is the right way to capture and convert raw equipment data into useful information, read the article.