Reliability of intralogistics-systems - oversizing or maintenance

The basic task of intralogistics is making processes more efficient, planning capacities and performance and using them in a better way. For this reason it contributes to environmental protection and improved profitability and competitiveness of organizations. Unpredictable market developments can thwart any planning. In addition, robust intralogistic systems query optimal modernization intervals. Availability could be also achieved with adequate maintenance techniques and actions instead of costly redundancies and over-sizing. Maintenance actions could be carried out conserving large amounts of resources and unscheduled downtimes could be reduced, while requirement-based components would help save energy. Furthermore, modernizations at the right time bear the potential to generate large savings. Due to fast changes in technical areas as well as in costs for resources such as steel and energy, it might be reasonable to shift from robust construction of intralogistic systems to utilization-dependent-maintenance in order to insure the demanded reliability. This is specifically important in these times when markets and customer needs become more and more dynamic. Diagnosing the current condition and predicting the remaining lifetime help ensure system availability in an economic way.