Agricultural maintenance and industry 4.0

As the agricultural sector adopts new technologies and moves towards the agriculture of the future, farm maintenance is becoming increasingly important. Every day, agriculture is confronted with numerous natural, economic and technical constraints and the slightest setback can threaten all production. This sector then relies on scientific and technological innovations to stimulate production, optimize agricultural maintenance and meet agricultural challenges.

All agricultural work depends on the smooth running of maintenance, whether it is maintaining infrastructures or maintaining machines and equipment. At critical times, modern farmers invest a lot of time and money in maintenance in order to ensure that their machines work optimally. By adopting new maintenance software inspired by Industry 4.0, farmers can improve the availability and reliability of their machines throughout the year. Guided by a new generation CMMS, professionals will quickly find the right solution to reduce expenses, prevent breakdowns and simplify the entire agricultural maintenance process.

How does Industry 4.0 influence agricultural maintenance?

The term “Industry 4.0" is often synonymous with artificial intelligence and machine learning (or machine learning). When it comes to agricultural maintenance, Industry 4.0 provides us with the resources we need to store, process, and analyze big data data in order to simplify the creation of predictive algorithms and thus provide more reliable technical assistance.

The influence of the industry of the future in agriculture is reflected in the use of sensors, robots and new technologies designed to facilitate the monitoring of crops and soils. At the same time, maintenance solutions from Industry 4.0, such as next-generation CMMS, facilitate the entry and processing of information in order to improve the monitoring of equipment and maintenance activities. This data helps professionals monitor their equipment in real time in order to speed up the detection of problems and repair faulty equipment before it damages crops or delays production.

Follow the news on your farm or farm from the Mobility Work CMMS news feed: make your decisions in real time!

In order to make the most of innovative solutions, the adoption of new tools must be part of an approach to the evolution of maintenance processes. New generation solutions support farms in their transition to transition from maintenance strategy reactive to a preventive maintenance strategy. The success of this transition is subject to two conditions: the adoption of a user-friendly CMMS and the establishment of good preventive maintenance routines.

Ergonomics and ease of use are essential criteria when choosing a new CMMS software since the market is already invaded by complex traditional CMMS solutions that require many hours of migration and training. The primary objective of maintenance management software should be to help professionals and facilitate their daily work, without becoming a burden for the entire team. Thus, new generation CMMS have an intuitive interface and a data analysis tool that is understandable to everyone.

For owners of small and medium-sized farms, taking the plunge into preventive maintenance can still seem very difficult. However, the transition can be done gradually, starting with small changes, such as the elimination of paper or the management of agricultural tools and equipment in a new generation CMMS.

What are the challenges of agricultural maintenance?

Opting for a modern maintenance application makes it possible to rationalize the maintenance of farms and thus to gain in reliability and efficiency. Agriculture is a demanding job, characterized by a workload that varies with the seasons and the vagaries of the weather. In addition to natural constraints, farmers and farms need to carefully monitor the performance of their machines while dealing with complex regulatory requirements that are constantly evolving.

Optimizing agricultural maintenance through maintenance management software also helps professionals to anticipate their needs and to face the major challenges of agriculture.

Agricultural processes follow a specific schedule

Many agricultural procedures can only be carried out at a specific time of the year, otherwise some or all of the production is lost. Seeding and harvesting, for example, are essential activities that cannot be postponed in any way due to equipment failure. Also, the adoption of a CMMS ensures the availability and reliability of all the critical machines necessary for agricultural actions.

The calendar feature offered by Mobility Work allows you to plan all your preventive and predictive maintenance interventions.

Farms are subject to strict regulations

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has over 1,000 international standards for agriculture and livestock in addition to local food production laws. Les ISO standards on agriculture regulate all aspects of agriculture, from irrigation to agricultural machinery, including the sustainable management of farms. These standards promote efficient agricultural methods while ensuring that all processes comply with safety and quality.

Quality, health and safety standards are detailed in technical documents that users of a CMMS tool such as Mobility Work can download on the platform in order to make them available to all members of their network within the tool. All members of the production chain must read these reference documents, even seasonal workers, which is why it is important to provide teams with common maintenance management software.

Defective machines can damage production

Poor equipment can cause significant damage to soils and crops. Therefore, the majority of daily maintenance activities are aimed at ensuring the safety of machines, vehicles and people on farms. However, these efforts do not completely eliminate incidents.

Agricultural maintenance can be planned or carried out on an ad hoc basis as required, for example when a blockage occurs unexpectedly on a machine. The creation of maintenance plans using a new generation CMMS reduces the risk of incidents at critical moments. In fact, as soon as a new maintenance plan is entered into the tool, a notification is automatically sent to the assigned technician, so that the latter can perform the planned operation or consult it in his calendar. Good maintenance software helps improving the efficiency of agricultural work, communication and preventive maintenance.

In short, the adoption of a CMMS adapted to agricultural maintenance increases the availability and reliability of equipment by ensuring process compliance.

A modern CMMS is essential for industrial maintenance 4.0

Maintenance data makes perfect sense when fed into a maintenance management solution. The software analyzes the data and places it in the context of the latest interventions, the history of failures, manufacturer guidelines or even the stock of spare parts. This is how numbers are put into perspective to become the driving force behind decision-making.

The forecasts of the Mobility Work application analytics tool are based on data collected from thousands of users working on the same equipment.

What are the characteristics of a good CMMS software?

First of all, the best software isn't always the most expensive. SaaS solutions, such as Mobility Work, are affordable tools that are available on smartphones, computers and tablets (iOS and Android). These next-generation CMMS solutions are accessible at any time in fields as well as in greenhouses and sheds to facilitate maintenance management, communication and teamwork.

Mobility Work is the first maintenance management platform that offers both a CMMS solution and a social network dedicated to maintenance professionals. The numerous functionalities offered by Mobility Work adapt to many industrial sectors in order to bring together all actors in the world of maintenance and to encourage collaboration.

The functionalities of the Mobility Work solution help you organize and streamline all your maintenance activities in order to increase productivity and minimize errors. Thanks to the calendar integrated into the application, users can easily organize their days and plan their agricultural maintenance activities. In addition, this user-friendly function gives everyone an overview of the tasks they need to do.

Mobility Work CMMS displays the data entered in real time in the news feed in order to accelerate the detection and resolution of agricultural maintenance problems. This feature allows you to benefit from real-time monitoring of the operation of your farm and the evolution of ongoing maintenance activities. In addition, thanks to Mobility Work, you have access in the application to an efficient analytical tool that analyzes all the maintenance data entered into the platform by users: the most problematic equipment, repairs that are most often carried out... All of this data is presented as a graph in the Dashboard to help users monitor their evolution and adapt their maintenance strategy.

Choosing modern CMMS software is taking the first step towards automating its maintenance. Ultimately, Industry 4.0 and next-generation CMMS are part of an approach to rationalizing farms, eager to reduce their maintenance costs while continuously improving the reliability and performance of their equipment.

Are you interested in maintenance management and want to know more in order to increase your productivity and save money?