Evaluating the effectiveness of machine acquisitions and design by the impact on maintenance cost – a case study

Paper in proceeding, 2020

Industry 4.0 and circular economy are paradigm shifts for the industry. More and more machines will be used and the capability to maintain the machines becomes vital. The maintainability of a machine is to a large extent set already in the design phase; the goal of this article is to use a case study to investigate the quality of the machine design from a maintenance perspective. The results show that maintenance cost is gradually increasing in the initial part of the machine life cycle, that the new machines have higher maintenance costs than the machines approaching end of life, and that design weakness is a significant contributor to the maintenance cost. To understand more clearly why, further research in knowledge management, complementary qualitative interviews and smart maintenance is suggested.