Datastick: Return on Investment

Most “traditional” handheld vibration analyzers and data collectors cost somewhere between $12,000 and $30,000, with the majority falling in the $15,000 to $20,000 range. Datastick handheld VSA-Series analyzers generally cost less than $10,000. In spite of the low purchase price, our products have all the features you need for routine data collection and vibration analysis. For the price of one traditional analyzer, you can own several Datastick handheld analyzers.
If you find that in rare circumstances you need the capabilities of one of the more expensive traditional boxes, it is still far more cost-effective to have one of the traditional systems and several of ours.

Continuing Cost of Ownership

Many of the traditional systems require an annual maintenance fee, often $3,000 to $8,000 per unit, per year for even the most basic support. Datastick has no mandatory annual fees.

Then there's the cost of having an in-house vibration analyst. Despite the fact that it would be desirable to have one, it just isn't in the budget for some companies. Because the PC analysis and trending software that comes with every Datastick VSA-Series analyzer is based on Microsoft Excel, you can EASILY send your vibration data out to a consultant, which saves considerable expense.

All you need is someone to collect the data, which brings us to the next point.

Training Time and Costs

A number of our customers have experienced the “brick-in-the-drawer” syndrome: They had one of the traditional analyzers for years — but it had been sitting in a drawer, unused, ever since the last person in the company who actually knew how to use it had moved on. There was no time or budget to get someone trained on it, so despite the understanding that vibration analysis is key to machine reliability, the device sat there gathering dust — completely unused and unlikely ever to be used.

Datastick makes it easy and affordable for you to reap the benefits of vibration analysis in your facility.

Someone who knows vibration can learn to use a VSA-Series analyzer in a couple of hours, and if you speak English, we can usually get you started in a one- to two-hour web-based training session.

If you don't know vibration, you can still learn to operate the analyzer and get reliable reads in a day or two, with our help or with the help of a Datastick reseller or a vibration consultant.

Return on Investment

Why are you investing in predictive maintenance at all? To increase reliability.

So just what is reliability worth?

Consider this example, which shows, by comparison, the cost savings of using predictive maintenance with vibration analysis:

(The example numbers were chosen for easy math. Plug in your own numbers to see what this really means to you.)

1. Calculate the net income per hour of output for your production line or other critical process.

Example: $20,000 per hour.

2. Calculate the average downtime for each equipment failure and number of events per year.

Example: Failed motor repair requires an average of five hours of work, and two motors fail annually.

3. Multiply the results of step 1 by both values in step 2.

Example: $20,000 loss x 5 hours x 2 motors = $200,000 in lost revenue.

4. Estimate labor and equipment parts cost.

Example: $100 per hour x 5 hours per motor in labor x 2 motors = $1,000.

$3,000 parts cost per motor X 2 motors = $6,000.

Add those together and it totals $7,000 in parts and labor, conservatively. (This assumes labor on overtime and high parts cost because the problem wasn’t caught early, so the motors are run to near failure and breakdowns always happen at the worst time.)

5. Add step 3 and step 4. This is your avoidable annual cost in lost revenue plus repair costs.

Example: $200,000 + $7,000 = $207,000.

6. Now do the cost calculation based on predictive maintenance with planned downtime. In this case, no revenue loss occurs, and maintenance is scheduled (so no overtime) and the problem is caught early (so parts costs are lower).

Example: $50 per hour labor x 5 hours per motor x 2 motors = $500 in labor.

Add $1,000 in parts per motor X 2 = $2,000.

Grand total is $2,500.

So, predictive maintenance with scheduled downtime gives a maintenance cost of $2,500 annually with no revenue loss, compared to $207,000 in lost revenues and unscheduled downtime costs without predictive maintenance.

So, what is Reliability worth? In this single example it’s worth $207,000 minus $2,500. That’s $204,500. That's a whole lot of money. And many customers say it is more for their equipment.

Subtract an estimated $6,500 for a Datastick VSA system and consultant fees of $24,000 per year (two days per month at $1,000 a day). The amount of time it takes to collect the vibration data is offset by the time NOT spent on emergency repairs.

That equates to a $174,000 savings over one year, compared to not having predictive maintenance with vibration analysis.

We think it’s worth it. Perhaps you do, too.

For more information, call us toll-free in the USA at
1 888 277 5153, or 408 987 3400 from anywhere else.
Or you can contact us by clicking here.