Predictive maintenance for Endress+Hauser

ETH juniors is the junior enterprise of ETH Zurich. The aim of the student-led consultancy is to act as a link between ETH Zurich and industry, transferring the latest know-how from ETH to companies while helping students to apply their acquired knowledge in practice.

New possibilities for data analysis

Endress+Hauser produce measuring devices for process automation, employing approx. 13,000 people worldwide. In spring 2017, after Endress+Hauser had heard of ETH juniors for the first time during a presentation, the company came up with the idea of using service data more efficiently. The fact that not only huge amounts of data, but also the required computing capacities are available today opens up new possibilities for data analysis and utilization.

Recognizing trends in service data

ETH juniors took over the project management and worked out a proof of concept with the help of a student employee. In the first part of the project, the service data collected by Endress+Hauser was visualized and evaluated in order to recognize initial trends. This was important to clearly define the direction and aim of further analyses.

Implementation in practice

The actual predictive maintenance tool was developed by ETH juniors in a follow-up project. The application is capable of learning patterns in service data and is thus able to recognize early on when certain products may require servicing. With the tool from ETH juniors, Endress+Hauser can be warned earlier of a device fault that may impair the function or lead to the failure of a field device – allowing the field device to be serviced before the customer notices any malfunction.

The tool developed by ETH juniors is currently being further developed and globally implemented at Endress+Hauser.

Open for new projects

Is your company looking for expertise in the field of data analysis, too? The ETH juniors would be happy to support you.