Vulnerabilities and Fruits of Smart Monitoring

Abstract

“Smart” condition monitoring inherently implies that all other analysis techniques are “dumb”. If so, how could one explain why for last half century, classical vibration-based condition monitoring techniques proved their merits in thousands of life-saving case studies? To discuss this concern, the paper briefly analyzes the process of evolution of condition monitoring systems over the years. For this purpose, the paper treats a condition monitoring system (CMS) as a part of a larger, much more complex system. The most important other systems CMS is connected to are the safety system, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and DCS (Distributed Control System). The outcome of such a complex system depends significantly on human actions (selection, configuration and operation), and the outcome of which serves other human actions (maintenance planning). Therefore, the paper tries to answer the question what is the actual “smartness” of modern systems that draws so much attention, namely is it the capabilities of smart systems or the hope in these capabilities? After reading this chapter, the reader would possibly gain some knowledge where to apply smart monitoring, and where do not.