How a Single Facility Prevented 15 Failures within Six Months and Transformed Maintenance with AssetWatch

The Challenge

At Arbec’s facility in Miramichi, New Brunswick, keeping the oriented strand board (OSB) line running is critical. If one machine fails, the entire line goes down. But with a predictive maintenance strategy powered by AssetWatch, the maintenance team quickly shifted from reactive maintenance to strategic foresight. In just six months, they prevented 15 equipment failures and unlocked new levels of confidence, efficiency, and cost savings across their operation. 

‍The Solution ‍

After seeing the value of AssetWatch at a sister site in Montreal, Stéphane brought the platform to Miramichi in early 2024. The facility began Phase 1 with 200 sensors focusing on critical machines, and the team quicky saw results. AssetWatch’s continuous monitoring approach replaced manual data collection and provided real-time visibility into asset health. 

Instead of reacting to failures, the team now has the foresight to plan repairs during scheduled downtime, with enough notice to source and install replacement parts without disrupting production. 

AssetWatch gives us that margin: a few weeks' notice to plan, order, and act. It’s the difference between a scheduled stop and a catastrophe

Stéphane Roberge, VP of Asset Management and Continuous Improvement, Arbec

Rapid deployment

2 days

Length of time needed for the AssetWatch team to install 200 sensors facility wide

Speed to value 

4 weeks 

Approximate length of time to initial value realized, with major impact by month three

Failures prevented

Asset saves achieved within the first six months of deploying the AssetWatch solution

Six-month ROI

12X

Sparking planned increase from 200 to 330 sensors, with further expansion likely

Key AssetWatch Advantages

User-friendly platform delivers clear insights and saves time across the team 

The AssetWatch platform’s intuitive interface has become a key part of the team’s workflow delivering clear alerts, actionable recommendations, and historical insights without the need for complex analysis. 

“We used to spend time searching for problems,” Stéphane says. “Now AssetWatch shows us exactly where to look, and why.” 

‍

The human factor makes predictive maintenance easy 

Stephane emphasized that strong tools are only part of the equation. The expertise and partnership from their condition monitoring engineer (CME), Kevin Jepson, has been critical to success. 

“Our CME is a partner, not just support. Kevin is quick to respond, and his analysis is essential. Without the right action on the right equipment, you’re just wasting effort.

12x

ROI

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AssetWatch partnered with AWS to provide the scalability and reliability needed to support a serverless architecture. With a robust suite of services tailored for data ingestion, processing, and machine learning, AWS enables AssetWatch to seamlessly scale sensor data and deliver predictive insights to manufacturing companies. AWS infrastructure reduces operational overhead and allows AssetWatch to focus on innovation to drive value to our customers. Additionally, AWS’s strong security framework and global infrastructure ensure the resilience and compliance required to support mission-critical manufacturing operations at scale. This partnership positions AssetWatch to accelerate growth while maintaining the highest levels of performance and reliability.