Condition Monitoring and Alert Fatigue

Condition Monitoring and Alert Fatigue

Condition monitoring means watching asset signals continuously and acting only when they cross out of normal.

Building a Watchlist

• Signal — the thing you measure (vibration, temperature, oil condition, motor current).
• Baseline — what normal looks like for this specific asset under normal load.
• Threshold — the value that triggers an inspection or work order.
• Alert — the notification a technician sees when a threshold is crossed.

Avoiding Alert Fatigue

1. Set thresholds from real baselines, not vendor defaults — otherwise every asset screams.
2. Tier alerts: info for trending, warning for inspection, critical for shutdown.
3. Suppress noise during planned downtime and maintenance windows.
4. Review alert quality monthly; if a signal never predicts failure, stop watching it.

Tips

A good monitoring program is mostly subtraction. Kill the alerts that fire constantly and never matter.