Rotating machinery belong to the category of major equipment in many large industries as oil refineries. When such assets are installed in an industrial plant, they are expected to perform with minimal faults and failures guaranteeing that the plant can be operated within pre-defined reliability, safety, availability, and performance specifications. This paper provides an insight into current practices when dealing with large fleets of rotating machines in an Industry 4.0 context and what opportunities and challenges are encountered towards improving their safe operation and reliability by taking advantage of the development of new technologies.

Bearing in mind that centrifugal pumps are the most common rotating machines in oil refineries, this paper is specially focused in this case, but its guidelines can be applied to all types of rotating equipment installed in an industrial plant.