How to Automate Industrial Maintenance

Digital transformation is revolutionizing the way Mexican industries manage their daily operations, the execution of procedures, and the interaction between people, systems, and equipment. In an increasingly competitive and demanding environment, operational efficiency and equipment availability have become critical factors for maintaining productivity. Automating maintenance operations is no longer an option, but a strategic necessity.

To address this challenge, solutions like AVEVA™ Work Tasks, implemented by MES Automation, have become key tools within the Industry 4.0 ecosystem. This platform enables the digitization of processes, the integration of machine and human data, and the execution of automated actions based on real-world operating conditions. The result: a smarter, more agile, and more productive plant.

Maintenance automation in the current industrial context

In many Mexican industries, maintenance still relies on manual procedures, isolated systems, and informal communication. This leads to delays in troubleshooting, a lack of traceability, increased operational risk, and unplanned downtime. Given this scenario, automating maintenance operations involves:

Detect anomalies or events in real time.
Automatically notify the appropriate responsible parties.
Record incidents and work orders digitally.
Execute guided and standardized workflows.
Integrate data between systems (CMMS, ERP, SCADA, MES).

These actions reduce response time to failures, prevent unscheduled shutdowns, improve traceability, and ensure regulatory compliance.

USEFUL CONTENT – Digitization of industrial processes with AVEVA Work Tasks

AVEVA Work Tasks: Digitalization and orchestration of operational processes

AVEVA Work Tasks is an advanced industrial workflow management platform. Its goal is to efficiently connect people, systems, and data, providing a digital environment for modeling, executing, monitoring, and analyzing standard operating procedures.

Outstanding Features

Digital process management
- Design of complex workflows that integrate people, industrial systems, and business applications.
- Elimination of paper and manual tasks.
- Real-time monitoring and complete traceability.
Low-code process design
- Visual tools for creating processes and forms without programming.
- Responsive forms adaptable to any device.
- Integrated decision trees and version control.
Monitoring activities and KPIs
- Dashboards to visualize flow statuses and key indicators.
- Exception alerts.
- Association of events with processes for in-depth analysis.
Security and compliance
- Granular access control.
- Electronic signatures valid for industrial regulations.
- Collaboration in approvals and traceability of changes.
Integration with existing systems
- Connectors for AVEVA Application Server, MES, OMI, among others.
- Integration with Microsoft applications, APIs, and industrial protocols such as MQTT and AMQP.
- High availability and scalability in virtualized environments.

AVEVA Work Tasks Pro: mobility and efficient execution for all types of maintenance

AVEVA Work Tasks Pro is the mobile app that extends the capabilities of the AVEVA Work Tasks platform to Android, iOS, and Windows devices, facilitating comprehensive management of preventive, corrective, and predictive maintenance directly from the field.

Thanks to this tool, technicians can:

Access maintenance orders from any location—in the plant, in the field, or at remote facilities—without relying on paper or fixed computers.
Run tasks in offline mode, allowing you to continue with scheduled activities even in areas without connectivity. Once the connection is reestablished, synchronization is automatic.
Receive immediate push notifications when a corrective order is generated for a critical failure, a scheduled preventive inspection is triggered, or an anomalous condition is identified through predictive maintenance.
Completely digitize forms, checklists, and visual evidence (such as photographs or readings), ensuring traceability and compliance for each type of intervention.

This solution is ideal for maintaining operational continuity and service quality in environments where mixed maintenance strategies are applied. From planned preventive inspections and urgent corrective interventions to data-driven predictive actions, AVEVA Work Tasks Pro ensures orderly, auditable, and efficient execution.

From data to automatic maintenance

While AVEVA orchestrates operational processes throughout the plant, MES Automation focuses on helping you leverage real-time machine data to generate automated actions. MES Automation's expertise in digital manufacturing using AVEVA enables you to create configurable workflows that react to specific equipment events.

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What is a Workflow in Industrial Maintenance?

A workflow consists of:

Trigger: a condition based on equipment or operator data (alarm, fault, shutdown, etc.).
Action: an automatic response configured by the user (create an incident, send a notification, or activate a webhook).

Types of actions available in Workflows: automation applied to industrial maintenance

Incidents

This action allows the automatic recording of a problem or abnormal condition detected in the machine, generating an incident within the maintenance management system.

Key Settings:
- Priority: assignment of levels (High, Medium, Low) according to criticality.
- Delay: timeout before executing the action to avoid false positives.
- Controller: designation of the technician or team in charge.
Example of use in industrial maintenance:
- On a bottling line, if an abnormal pressure is detected on a critical valve for 3 minutes, the system creates a corrective maintenance incident with high priority and assigns it to the on-duty technician.
- After 500 hours of operation of a centrifugal pump, a safety incident is automatically triggered. Preventive Maintenance to replace mechanical seals before they fail.

Notifications

Notifications allow those responsible to be quickly alerted via email or SMS message when a condition requiring immediate or scheduled attention is detected.

Key Settings:
- Channel customization and reception schedule.
- Activation according to specific parameters of each device.
Example of use in industrial maintenance:
- If the system detects an out-of-tolerance vibration pattern on an engine (indicator of impending failure), an alert is sent. predictive notification to the reliability engineer for review and validation before generating a work order.
- In the event of a delay in the execution of a scheduled preventive inspection, an alert is generated to the maintenance manager to ensure compliance with the plan.

Sending data automatically

The platform allows structured data to be automatically sent to external systems such as ERPs, CMMS, monitoring platforms, or analysis tools.

Key features:
- Real-time delivery of critical information to connected platforms.
- Automation of processes such as creating work orders, updating reports, or activating approval chains.
Example of use in industrial maintenance:
- When a temperature threshold is exceeded in an industrial oven, a webhook is activated that automatically generates a corrective maintenance order in the CMMS system.
- When a machine reaches 80% of its estimated life cycle, a webhook is launched that update the ERP and schedule an intervention Preventive Maintenance with the necessary spare parts in inventory.

Advantages of automating industrial maintenance

Automating maintenance operations using platforms like AVEVA™ Work Tasks offers tangible and strategic benefits:

Increased productivity: downtime is reduced and the use of technical resources is optimized.
Greater equipment reliability: by intervening preventively or immediately in critical conditions.
Compliance and traceability: Activities are documented in accordance with ISO, GMP or FDA regulations.
Effective collaboration: Areas such as maintenance, quality and production are connected in a single decision-making network.
Reduction of operating costs: reactive maintenance is avoided and tasks are scheduled based on actual conditions.

Conclusion: From Automation to Operational Excellence

At MES Automation, we help industries transform their maintenance operations through digitalization and intelligent automation, integrating leading platforms such as AVEVA Work Tasks.

Through these solutions, we close the entire operational data cycle : from real-time detection of machinery events to the execution of tasks in the field, all within a fully connected, traceable digital system. Contact an MES advisor for more information.