The table below illustrates the potential financial benefits associated with detecting machine failure conditions timeously (Jan 2010). Through early detection of failure conditions cost savings are made by eliminating a certain amount of unscheduled downtime due to break-downs, and by replacing costly unscheduled down-time with scheduled maintenance down-time work that is less costly.
| Probability that a potential failure condition is detected - conservative |
30% |
| Cost of unscheduled downtime due to failure (R/hour) |
R 20,000 |
| Cost of scheduled downtime (R/hour) |
R 5,000 |
| Current scheduled downtime (hours per year) |
150 |
| Current unscheduled downtime (hours per year) |
60 |
| Fraction of unscheduled downtime that could be eliminated by early detection of failure condition |
30% |
| Cost saving due to elimination of unscheduled downtime |
R 108,000 |
| Fraction of unscheduled downtime that could be replaced by scheduled downtime due to early detection of failure condition |
70% |
| Cost saving due to unscheduled downtime replaced by scheduled downtime |
R 189,000 |
| Total cost saving on consequential production losses per year |
R 297,000 |