For a while now, companies have offered laboratory oil analysis and also, though not for as long, oil analysis software. The latest technology in the lubricants field is comprehensive programs that can integrate lubricant task routing and scheduling with preventative maintenance functions to automate and facilitate the planning and control of a company's entire lubrication program. Managers no longer have to make potentially costly guesses or assumptions, because the screen tells you at a glance which jobs are due or past due. And it makes things much more efficient by automating tasks that used to be done manually. This technology can reduce the number of personnel required to monitor operations and the amount of human errors.
Several companies offer such technology.
Following is an example from Rockwell Automation. SIS designs and manufactures a wide variety of power and electrical control systems for both portable and fixed crushing plants, including cone crushers, jaw crushers, impactor crushers, screen plants and wash plants. Having a quarry full of expensive new gadgets intended to increase production is great. Not having all those gadgets working together can be an exercise in frustration. To that end, several companies are marketing systems that allow information to flow between units in the field and from the field to the front office.