Looking ahead to 2017: the big idea you should know about

2016 draws to a close. A fantastic year for deckpro pumps, and hopefully for you too. So what's your top priority for 2017?

The rate of change hasn't slowed in 2016. Everywhere there are improvements in efficiency, better ways of achieving more with less, and a continuation in the explosion of communications. As well as the informative and helpful blog posts we've published on all things pump-related, at deckpro we've raised money for the 3H Fund (Helping Hands for Holidays) and Save The Children, launched the Pump Station Replacement Kit, produced a new website, started a helpdesk ticket system, launched the customer portal for viewing all jobs at your sites, and today we're moving to our new premises in Leighton Buzzard. And did we mention Christmas Jumper Day?

2017 promises to be no less exciting. So what are your plans for the year ahead? What are your top priorities? What's the one or two things you can achieve that will have the greatest impact this year?

There's an idea that we'd like to share with you. It may already be on your mind, because it's starting to develop in the daily life of teams managing facilities all over the country: predictive maintenance.

Predictive maintenance involves using data to constantly assess the condition of your equipment, making accurate predictions about what's going to happen when, and then planning your maintenance with the insight that provides. For example, imagine software predicting that your pump has between 500 and 600 hours of running life left before the bearings will fail. That's not a dream, that kind of prediction is actually possible. In fact it's been around for a while, but the cost of it has meant that it's only economically viable for the biggest and most important pumps (think oil rigs and water providers).

The advantages of predictive maintenance are pretty obvious. Carry out maintenance to equipment just in time - not years ahead of when it's required, not after it's failed and you have a dire emergency on your hands, but just when it's needed. Avoid costly downtime by choosing when you do the works, rather than letting the machine decide for you by failing when it chooses (usually during peak usage times, when you need it the most). The problem until now is that predictive maintenance has been too hard to install, too costly to implement, and too unreliable to work. However, 2017 is going to be the year that predictive maintenance became available to any pump, anywhere.

How can we be so sure? Because we have the solution. It's already undergoing pilot trials, and will be being fully launched in the coming months. Think about how this could benefit you, and how you could improve your efficiency and costs with this. Maybe this alone could provide you with the cost savings you need to stay within a reduced budget for the coming year. Or maybe it could hit your innovation target for the year, with a clearly calculated positive impact on the bottom line. Register your interest now to be first in line!

We hope you'll have a successful 2017 and look forward to being part of that success. All the best!