Evolution of Maintenance Processes in Industry 4.0

Introduction

Several industries are looking for intelligent systems, smart methods and functional processes to increase their production throughput and operational efficiency at the lowest cost. At the same time there is a steady need to reduce operational risk and product or service quality considering demands from stakeholders, governments and competitors. In this process, these industries suffer from operational flaws, human errors, systematic failures and process ineffectiveness leading to unanticipated delays in production and other negative incidences. To reduce these technical and operational deficiencies as well as improve their productivity, industries are looking for possible solutions to the above problems by adopting emerging technologies. A foremost concept that is setting the pace and direction for many sectors and services is industry 4.0. The focus is on augmenting machines, infrastructure and systems with wireless connectivity and sensors to monitor, visualize and communicate incidences between different entities for decision making. This new approach is essential for competitiveness in current industrial set up and for assuring a successful business enterprise.

This new trend entails the use of well - designed technologies process, and models in the form of internet of things (IoT), cyber-physical systems (CPS), cloud computing, Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate data exchange and automation. This disruptive revolution has caused substantial evolution in physical asset management. An aspect of physical asset management that has been enormously influenced by the new industrial set-up is the maintenance process. Maintenance practices, perception and prospect have been influenced in different industrial context, thus there is a need to adopt the concept of maintenance process according to the international standard EN 60300-3-14 into Industry 4.0 framework. This book chapter gives an overview on the evolution of maintenance function and the role of maintenance process in the bigger picture of industry 4.0 revolution. It also highlights the issues and challenges of maintenance process within the context of this new business approach. Some of the drawbacks of developing an industry 4.0 solution without adequate emphasis on maintenance process will be discussed. Further, some essential features and assisting technologies of industry 4.0 will be discussed with interest on how they can be used to connect the various elements of maintenance process. These elements include maintenance management, planning, preparation, execution, assessment and improvement according to maintenance standards. The purpose, characteristics and contents of each of these maintenance process elements differs thus there is a need to adequately investigate how they can be addressed in industry 4.0 context. This book chapter also gives a conceptual model on how maintenance process can be integrated into industrial 4.0 architecture. This conceptual model will support a seamless integration of operation and maintenance processes to facilitate effective and efficient maintenance decision making.