Automated warehouses face persistent downtime that impacts productivity and operating costs despite advances in robotics. Festo now addresses this challenge with its newly launched AX Motion Insights platform, which merges artificial intelligence with established maintenance workflows to improve equipment reliability. The move highlights an industry shift as companies seek smarter tools to anticipate failures, optimize maintenance, and enhance operational continuity. The AX Motion Insights suite links maintenance teams more closely to real-time data, giving them actionable insights to address issues before they disrupt critical processes. As automation becomes integral to logistics, such strategies are gaining traction, attracting attention from warehouse operators and systems integrators alike who look to extend machine lifespans while curbing unplanned outages.
Recent announcements about predictive maintenance in automation have emphasized general analytics tools, yet lacked the integration with maintenance management that Festo introduces with its AX suite. Previous solutions often required proprietary hardware or were limited in scalability, presenting challenges for operators of mixed equipment fleets. Festo’s approach, allowing its AX Motion Insights Pneumatic to monitor cylinders from any manufacturer and supporting both cloud and on-premises deployment, represents a notable shift toward flexible adoption and broader data connectivity compared to earlier market offerings.
How Does Festo’s AX Motion Insights Integrate with Maintenance?
AX Motion Insights functions by monitoring machines for potential points of failure and relaying this data to Smartenance AX, Festo’s digital maintenance management tool. This integration enables maintenance teams to move from reactive to predictive tasks by addressing issues before breakdowns occur. Asset tracking and a digital machine logbook further support targeted interventions, making maintenance workflows more data-driven.
Can the Platform Work with Other Maintenance Management Systems?
The AX Motion Insights platform accommodates customers’ existing setups by providing integration capabilities with a variety of maintenance management systems. Companies using established platforms can feed AX Motion Insights data into their current workflows if preferred. The Pneumatic module, in particular, stands out for offering condition monitoring for pneumatic cylinders of any brand without necessitating extra sensors or hardware changes, making the technology widely accessible for diverse equipment fleets.
What Makes AX Motion Insights Scalable for Operators?
Designed with scalability in mind, AX Motion Insights allows users to licence only required functions and assets, expanding coverage as automation grows. It also supports integration with Festo’s CMMT multiprotocol servo drives—components known for compatibility with various industrial communication standards—making deployment across different environments more straightforward. Festo indicates ongoing plans to support a wider range of servo drives and axes, fostering compatibility with other brands.
Festo positions this platform as part of an ongoing shift to smarter maintenance solutions in industrial automation. Through AX Data Access, users can bring operational technology (OT) data into IT systems, correlating motion performance and maintenance with overall energy consumption and productivity.
“AX Motion Insights enhances the connection between predictive analytics and on-the-ground maintenance,”
said a Festo spokesperson.
“Our goal is to help operations respond to issues before downtime, while providing the deployment flexibility our customers demand.”
The option for cloud or on-premises use reflects a response to varying data control needs among large-scale distribution centers.
Organizations considering predictive maintenance platforms for their warehouse automation should evaluate features such as system compatibility and deployment options. Festo’s inclusion of universal cylinder monitoring, absence of hardware lock-in, and scalable licencing model may prove useful in reducing adoption barriers for mixed-equipment operators. Meanwhile, integration with existing IT and OT structures allows for streamlined data management and improved decision-making. Companies moving towards more predictive maintenance models can expect not just less downtime, but improved planning and resource allocation over time.
