Owens Corning Prevents $11 Million Loss with Waites Predictive Maintenance at Tessenderlo Plant

Title

Owens Corning Prevents $11 Million Loss with Waites Predictive Maintenance at Tessenderlo Plant

Content

Owens Corning prevented more than $11.2 million in potential losses at its Tessenderlo plant in Belgium after Waites' AI-powered predictive maintenance system flagged a failing bearing on a 40-year-old ball mill, avoiding 5,376 hours of downtime and delivering an approximate 21,600% return on investment. The avoided costs totaled $11,241,395.20, comprising $9,281,395.20 in prevented production losses and $1,960,000 in repair and labor savings. "From an ROI standpoint, installing the Waites system was one of the easiest decisions we've made. It's a small investment compared to the $11 million we saved," said Jelle Willems, reliability engineer at Owens Corning. Willems added that before Waites, "we relied on periodic inspections and manual lubrication. Unplanned downtime caught us off guard far too often, especially with older equipment where the original manufacturer's lead times can be months." Owens Corning, a global building and construction materials leader founded in 1938 and headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, employs approximately 18,000 people across more than 30 countries and generated $9.7 billion in sales in 2023. Seeking to shift from reactive to proactive maintenance, the company evaluated 40 condition monitoring solutions and ran a 90-day proof of concept at a South Carolina plant before selecting Waites based on actionable alerts, rapid ROI, and scalable coverage. During the trial, over 70% of flagged action items focused on cleaning, alignment, and extending equipment life. On February 26, 2024, the Tessenderlo plant received an alert on Ball Mill #5, a critical "A Equipment" asset operating for over 40 years, when real-time Waites data showed a significant temperature spike at the non-drive-end main bearing. An immediate inspection revealed a cracked non-drive-end shaft, a damaged white metal bearing shell, and inadequate lubrication in the older oil-bath system. With a 17-week lead time for a replacement end shaft, proactive detection proved essential: the maintenance team replaced the end shaft and bearing shell, ordered a second shaft to keep in stock, and installed an automatic lubrication system to maintain consistent oil levels. The solution deploys wireless Waites sensors on critical equipment such as fans, conveyors, and large ball mills to capture real-time vibration and temperature data. AI-driven analysis detects early signs of bearing wear, misalignment, and lubrication issues, and maintenance teams receive immediate proactive alerts when anomalies are detected. Waites' analysts review system data, interpret complex findings, and provide specific, actionable recommendations, replacing multiple local systems and route-based checks with enterprise-wide visibility. Owens Corning selected Waites as its corporate solution and expanded the program to 24 facilities worldwide, standardizing best practices and reducing unplanned downtime across multiple divisions. The company has moved from breakdown-driven repairs to a data-centric model, integrating repairs into its existing maintenance schedule instead of reacting to crises, which has increased equipment reliability across multiple business divisions. Lessons learned at Tessenderlo prompted Owens Corning to install automatic lubrication systems on ball mills throughout its operations. Combined with Waites' AI-driven analytics and real-time monitoring, these changes continue to reduce unplanned downtime and drive enterprise-wide ROI, with the global rollout expanding well beyond the initial pilot as the company standardizes full-spectrum data collection and progressive maintenance practices.