Doing More with Less

Why Machine Vitals Helps Maintenance Teams Focus on What Matters Most

Industrial maintenance teams are operating in a different reality than they were even five years ago. Headcount is tighter. Experience is harder to replace. Equipment is expected to run longer, harder, and with fewer interruptions. The tolerance for downtime has not changed, but the resources available to prevent it have. 

In this environment, success is less about doing more work and more about doing the right work at the right time. 

WHY Machine Vitals 

Because maintenance teams are being asked to do more with less. 

Across industrial plants today, the reality is clear. There are fewer Maintenance Technicians, fewer Lubrication Technicians, and fewer experienced hands on the floor. At the same time, equipment is running harder, longer, and with less margin for error. 

When headcount is stretched, things get missed. Walkdowns get skipped. Lubrication checks get delayed. Early warning signs go unnoticed until failure forces attention. This is not a people problem. It is a visibility problem. 

Machine Vitals helps maintenance and reliability teams focus their limited time where it matters most. Instead of trying to check everything, teams can prioritize the equipment that is telling them it needs attention now. 

Temperature, moisture, and vibration do not lie. They change long before a bearing fails, a gearbox overheats, or a pump goes down. Monitoring these conditions continuously allows teams to see problems developing and plan work before it becomes emergency work. 

The WHY is not more data. The WHY is clarity. Knowing what equipment needs attention, and when. 

Early Warning Signals Everyone Understands

The fundamentals of equipment failure are not a mystery. High temperature accelerates lubricant breakdown, reducing viscosity and additive effectiveness until wear rates increase. Water contamination leads to corrosion, additive depletion, and loss of film strength. High vibration is the machine signaling misalignment, imbalance, looseness, bearing wear, or cavitation. 

These conditions do not appear at the moment of failure. They develop over time. When teams lack the bandwidth to catch them early, failures feel sudden, even though the warning signs were present all along. 

Machine Vitals makes these signals visible continuously, reducing reliance on perfect execution of walkdowns and manual checks that are increasingly difficult to sustain. 

WHERE to Apply Machine Vitals 

Focus on assets that matter and assets that get missed 

When resources are limited, monitoring should be applied where failures are costly and inspections are inconsistent. Machine Vitals is used on oil lubricated equipment, such as: 

• Pumps 
• Gearboxes 
• Fans 
• Bearing housing 
• Hydraulic units 
• Motors 

These assets are common across plants, critical to production, and often fail due to lubrication breakdown, water ingress, or developing mechanical issues. They are also frequently located in areas that are elevated, guarded, or inconvenient to access, which increases the likelihood that early warning signs are missed. 

Machine Vitals identifies these assets when conditions change, instead of waiting for someone to find the problem during a walkdown. 

WHEN Machine Vitals Makes the Biggest Difference 

Machine Vitals delivers the most value when maintenance teams cannot be everywhere at once. It helps Maintenance Managers, Planners, and Reliability Engineers answer the questions they face daily. 

• What needs attention first? 
• What can wait? 
• Where should limited technician time be spent? 

By highlighting rising temperatures, increasing moisture levels, or changes in vibration, Machine Vitals supports condition-based decision making instead of calendar-based or reactive maintenance. Work becomes planned instead of rushed. Emergencies decrease. Safety improves because interventions are scheduled, not forced. 

HOW It Fits into Today’s Plant Environment 

Machine Vitals is designed to be easy to deploy and scale. Devices can be set up using Bluetooth through Trico’s Mobile App with no network infrastructure required. For facilities that want continuous remote visibility, a cellular gateway option is available. All condition data is viewed through the Sensei Web App, providing a clear, centralized view of asset health. 

The goal is not to add another system to manage. The goal is to reduce uncertainty and help teams focus on what matters most. 

A Smarter Way to Support Short-Staffed Teams 

Machine Vitals supports the people responsible for uptime, safety, and cost control. It gives Reliability Managers earlier insight, Maintenance Managers better prioritization, Planners more confidence in scheduling, and Technicians clearer direction on where their time has the greatest impact. 

In an environment where resources are constrained, visibility becomes one of the most powerful tools a maintenance team can have. 

Ready for Visibility? 

If your team is being asked to do more with less and critical assets are getting missed, Machine Vitals can help bring focus back to the equipment that matters most. 
Reach out to learn how to implement a pilot program and see how condition-based visibility can help your team prioritize work, reduce surprises, and stay ahead of failures.