Case Study: a major global refining company avoids $500K bearing failure with UptimeAI Root Cause Agent

a major global refining company avoids $500K bearing failure with UptimeAI

A major global refining company faced a challenge where a shrinking number of experienced experts led to slower diagnosis of equipment anomalies, resulting in more frequent failures. When a centrifugal pump began showing elevated vibration, initial focus was on the bearing, but the true root cause was missed. UptimeAI's Root Cause Agent was used to address this issue.

UptimeAI's Root Cause Agent utilized a multivariate model and integrated data from CMMS and SharePoint to diagnose that thermal expansion from a recent seal repair was causing misalignment and accelerating bearing wear. The solution provided a confidence-ranked hypothesis and a recommendation for a laser alignment, which prevented a bearing failure and saved over $500,000. Following this success, the refiner deployed UptimeAI's agent more broadly, which increased alert approval rates to over 70% and drastically reduced overall alert volume, enabling effective site-level self-management.