As manufacturers seek greater efficiency, ‘predictive-maintenance’ tech is being introduced

The technology, developed by New York-based startup Auguri Inc., has helped Frito-Lay increase its production capacity by 4,000 hours a year—that’s more than several million pounds worth of snacks off the production line and onto the shelf, Ms. Farberov said.

PepsiCo is now shipping the technology to most U.S. Frito-Lay plants and plans to roll it out to beverage plants in South America and eventually to all bottlers in North America, she said. “We had a very clear business target to achieve,” she said.

Other manufacturers appear to follow suit. Global predictive maintenance technology, also known as machine-health tech, is expected to reach $18.6 billion by 2027. In the year When Covid-19 hits in 2020, as it closes factories and disrupts shipping lanes, global forecasted maintenance costs will reach about $4 billion, the company said.

Auguri is expected to add up to 50 new industrial customers by the end of the year, said the company’s founder and CEO, Saar Yoskovits. In addition to Pepsi, current clients include Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Dupont de Nemours Inc.

and Hershey Co.

Among approximately one hundred beverage and food manufacturers, pharmaceutical firms, consumer packaged goods makers and other large manufacturers, the company said.

In the year Started in 2011, Auguri makes wireless sensors that attach to factory equipment and pick up the sounds they emit. The data is transferred to a cloud-based platform and analyzed by artificial intelligence software trained to identify more than 80,000 industrial machinery sounds in various life cycles—from stable operation to breakdown—and to identify patterns by overlapping these sounds. Oguri’s system relays its insights to the factory’s maintenance team in real-time, allowing them to better focus equipment inspections and skip maintenance needs.

Other tech startups offering similar predictive-maintenance technology include C3.ai Inc.,

DataProphet and Senseye. While the technology isn’t new, rising demand from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and increased supply chain disruptions associated with the Covid-related shutdown in China is making these and other startups more expensive for manufacturers.

UK-based predictive-maintenance software developer Senseye was acquired by Siemens in June. AG

. In announcing the deal, Siemens said the Sensei technology will reduce unplanned machine downtime by up to 50% and increase the productivity of maintenance workers by up to 30%. Terms were not disclosed.

When Auguri raised $180 million in a Series E funding round in October—taking the private market valuation to more than $1 billion—the lead investor was oilfield giant Baker Hughes. Co.

Another was the corporate venture arm of Schneider Electric SE..

Under the agreement, Baker Hughes will sit on Auguri’s board of directors. A multi-year trade agreement was also signed, Oguri said.

In May, Auguri itself acquired Seebo, an AI-based process-intelligence startup, for more than $100 million.

Mr. Yoskowitz, Oguri’s chief executive, said his long-term goal for the company is not to be acquired by a giant manufacturer or IT provider, but to go public “when the time comes.”

Large information-technology vendors are offering their own predictive maintenance tools, ramping up competition in an already tight market.

“The value of startup vendors like Auguri is initially a combination of hardware and software predictive-maintenance solutions, especially machine learning-based,” said Emil Bertelsen, vice president and analyst at IT research and consulting firm Gartner. Inc.

“The quality and standards of predictive maintenance insights continue to improve,” said Mr. Bertelson, using multiple data sources such as historical and operational data, acoustic sensors and imagery.

Warren Pruitt, vice president of global engineering at Colgate-Palmolive, says the company has turned to predictive-maintenance tools to improve machine performance and reduce machine downtime. Previously, the company relied on preventive and calendar-based maintenance to manage equipment.

Colgate-Palmolive has deployed the Oguri platform at all of its North American plants, as well as in Europe, Latin America and Asia, he said.

“Our predictive-maintenance program develops the skills of our workforce, giving our employees the bandwidth to see the big picture and think about how we can use new technologies and initiatives to continuously improve our operations,” said Mr. Pruitt.

Write Angus Loten at angus.loten@wsj.com