Predictive maintenance is more than vibration analysis

When facilities teams hear “predictive maintenance,” most think of one thing: vibration analysis. Strap a sensor to a motor, watch for the signature of a failing bearing, and fix it before it breaks.

If Clockworks is new to you, here’s the short version: Clockworks Analytics makes automated building analytics software that reads the operational data your building already produces, then surfaces what’s going wrong and ranks it by cost and criticality — so teams fix the right things before they fail. Predictive maintenance is central to that work, and in our experience it reaches well beyond vibration analysis alone.

That instinct is sound. Vibration analysis delivers value, particularly on large-horsepower rotating machinery. But as Alex Grace, Clockworks’ Chief Commercial Officer, puts it, it covers only part of the picture, and the larger part often gets overlooked.

Watch this moment in the webinar — 39:14

What are the early signs of equipment failure?

Predictive maintenance also means catching the early indicators of fault — and those show up long before a bearing ever starts to shake.

“Sensors don’t go from working perfectly to not working at all. Compressors don’t go from working perfectly to failing entirely. There’s signs of degradation that appear.”

Watch this moment in the webinar — 39:43

Those signs live in the operational data your building is already producing — the temperatures, pressures, and runtimes your equipment reports every few minutes. A compressor running low on refrigerant in a way that quietly shortens its life. A fault condition that only appears on certain days. None of it registers as a physical vibration, and none of it is an emergency yet. But each one is degradation already underway, visible in the data to anyone — or any analytics platform — watching for it.

Why does asset criticality matter in predictive maintenance?

Not every asset earns the same attention. The VAV feeding a hallway is not the one feeding an operating room, a pharmacy, or a president’s office. (A VAV, or variable air volume box, is the unit that regulates how much conditioned air reaches a given space — so what it serves is exactly what raises the stakes.) On a critical asset, you want to know about a developing fault early — while it’s still a faint signal near the bottom of the list — so you can act before it becomes a disruption.

Watch this moment in the webinar — 11:05

That’s the shift from reactive to proactive that predictive maintenance delivers. Or, as one Clockworks client described it:

“Clockworks allows us to look through the front windshield instead of constantly looking in the rearview mirror.”

Watch this moment in the webinar — 12:00

A building management system (BMS) — the control system that runs your HVAC — can tell you something is wrong. It usually can’t tell you why, or whether it even matters. Watching for early indicators — and prioritizing them by criticality — is how teams stop chasing alarms and start heading off failures. That prioritization — separating the alarms that matter from the ones that don’t — is the core of what Clockworks does.

What does predictive maintenance actually mean?

Vibration analysis is one valuable tool for one class of equipment. Predictive maintenance is the wider discipline: it catches the early signs of degradation across every asset, prioritizes the most critical, and resolves problems while they are still small. It’s the discipline Clockworks was built to automate.

The result is equipment that lasts longer, lower operating costs, and time given back to the teams that need it most.

Frequently asked questions

What is predictive maintenance?

Predictive maintenance is the practice of catching equipment problems early — while they’re still small and inexpensive to fix — instead of waiting for a breakdown. It works by reading the operational data equipment already produces to spot degradation before failure. The payoff is fewer emergencies, longer equipment life, and lower operating costs.

How is predictive maintenance different from vibration analysis?

Vibration analysis is one tool within predictive maintenance, best suited to large-horsepower rotating machinery like motors and large pumps. Predictive maintenance is the broader discipline: it also catches faults that never produce a physical vibration — a compressor running low on refrigerant, or a fault that only appears on certain days — by watching temperatures, pressures, and runtimes. Vibration analysis covers part of the picture; predictive maintenance covers the whole asset base.

What data does predictive maintenance use?

It uses the operational data your building already produces — the temperatures, pressures, and runtimes equipment reports every few minutes, typically through the building management system (BMS). Those readings reveal early degradation long before it becomes an emergency. In most cases, no new sensors are required to get started.

How does Clockworks approach predictive maintenance?

Clockworks Analytics uses automated fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) to read a building’s existing operational data, surface what’s going wrong, and rank each issue by cost and criticality. That prioritization lets teams act on the faults that matter before they fail, instead of chasing every alarm. It’s the discipline Clockworks was built to automate.