Background

The Atlas Energy Solutions facility in Monahans, Texas produces industrial sand, a critical material for many industries like energy and construction.

However, given their remote location, they have to rely on staffing to travel in every few weeks to complete critical work. Historically, unexpected downtime to make repairs on their critical equipment (conveyors, pumps, etc.) periodically resulted in adverse operational impacts.

Now, they are able to anticipate, plan, and execute their repairs, using machine insights from Augury and their diverse skill set.

Challenge

Reactive maintenance demands:

Like most facilities in fast-paced production environments, the team prioritized keeping operations moving above all else. Without early warning systems for developing issues, maintenance work happened when equipment demanded immediate attention—disrupting schedules and creating urgency around parts and repairs.

Flying blind on equipment health:

Without proper monitoring, critical fans and motors gave no warning before failing, creating emergency repairs that disrupted production schedules and impacted sales.

The journey: Building a culture of prevention

Started in run-to-failure mode:

When Richard joined Atlas Energy Solutions, Augury sensors were installed but underutilized—the team operated in a run-to-failure mode common throughout the industry.

Ownership sparked the first win:

Richard earned his CAT I certification and began investigating every alert. His first major win—finding missing bolts invisible to the naked eye—proved the technology’s value.

Skeptics became believers:

By partnering with supervisors to review data after each success, he gradually converted skeptics into believers. Today, the maintenance team proactively checks alerts and schedules repairs weeks in advance, transforming Atlas Energy Solutions into a model for data-driven reliability.