The wireless sensor market also illustrates a broader challenge facing manufacturers. DeMaria noted that there are now dozens of competing technologies available, leaving many organisations uncertain about where to begin. In some cases, companies run multiple pilot projects simultaneously while trying to determine which approach delivers the greatest value. Despite years of discussion around predictive maintenance, many organisations are still at the start of that journey. One of the most common questions DeMaria encounters is simply: where do we start? The answer depends less on the technology itself and more on the problems a company is trying to solve. Some organisations need better visibility into asset condition. Others need help analysing data, access to specialist expertise or a clearer way of demonstrating business value. That business dimension is becoming increasingly important. Reliability professionals today often find themselves operating between the plant floor and the boardroom. Beyond identifying equipment issues, they are increasingly expected to demonstrate how reliability initiatives contribute to uptime, productivity, risk reduction and overall operational performance. For Fluke, that means turning technical information into something that supports decision-making at multiple levels of the organisation. The company’s confidence in this area is supported by decades of machine condition data accumulated through the former Azima business. Those records include fault signatures, machine behaviour patterns and corrective actions gathered across 100 trillion test points of asset data, over many years. Today, that information forms part of the foundation for the company’s diagnostic and analytical capabilities. Looking ahead, DeMaria expects data volumes to continue growing as monitoring technologies become more widespread and more sophisticated. The challenge, however, is unlikely to be a shortage of information. Instead, the question will be how organisations make use of it. The growth of sensors, software and AI means manufacturers now have unprecedented visibility into the condition of their assets. Yet visibility alone does not improve reliability. As DeMaria suggests, the real value lies in helping organisations understand what action to take next. In an industry awash with data, that may prove to be the harder challenge. For further information please visit: https://www.fluke.com/en-gb www.hpmag.co.uk HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS June 2026 31
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