Material handling company Intelligrated today launched a software application that it said uses data analytics to help firms efficiently manage the maintenance of material handling equipment, a move the company said allows it to enter a niche alongside such rivals as SAP SE and Dematic Corp.

The Mason, Ohio-based company's "Intelligrated Reliability Intelligence Solution" (IRIS) targets the market for computerized maintenance management software (CMMS).

Software providers likes SAP, Dematic, Hippo CMMS, and Maintenance Assistant Inc. provide CMMS platforms for sectors such as manufacturing tools, air conditioning, building maintenance, and forklift fleets. CMMS software platforms allow users to maximize uptime for equipment by tracking hardware, forecasting repairs, managing spare parts, and using predictive analytics to forecast future problems. This, in turn, helps users trim their repair costs.

The new IRIS version of CMMS offers those features as well, but the platform is customized for material handling equipment sold only by Intelligrated, the company said.

By focusing on that specific collection of material handling equipment, IRIS can generate a "deep pool" of historical data generated both by the equipment inside a user's own facility and by the material handling equipment in all Intelligrated installations, the company said. That large quantity of maintenance and performance records allows Intelligrated to analyze the big data and generate customized predictions of the specific equipment used in each warehouse or DC.

"Today's distribution operations rely on automated systems to most efficiently meet ambitious business goals of increasingly high throughput and accuracy," John Sorensen, senior vice president and general manager for Lifecycle Support Services at Intelligrated, said in a statement. "IRIS offers the capability to inform and execute strategic, proactive lifecycle-management programs to help operations maximize asset performance and return on investment."