Facilitating the Implementation of Smart Maintenance

Doctoral thesis, 2021

Innovations and rapid advancements in digital technologies in the manufacturing industry are setting high expectations of highly automated, intelligent and interconnected production systems. To bring these expectations to realisation and secure productive and sustainable production systems, maintenance organisations must develop accordingly. Thus, there is a need for organisational innovation in maintenance.

The way in which maintenance is organised in digitalised manufacturing is called “Smart Maintenance”, and industrial companies need evidence‐based guidance in pursuing such an implementation. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to facilitate Smart Maintenance implementation. To this end, the thesis aims to support organisational innovation in maintenance, with organisations and all targeted employees becoming increasingly skilful, consistent and committed to working with Smart Maintenance. This aim was achieved through a mixed‐methods approach comprising six studies.

Firstly, digitalisation in general and Smart Maintenance in particular, will require investment. This thesis reviews 24 maintenance models which can be used as support in calculating and describing the effects of maintenance. It also demonstrates an example of how to evaluate new technology (the impact of 5G technology on manufacturing performance). The thesis also identifies 11 factors influencing the investment process.

Secondly, to benefit from the technology, an organisation must develop accordingly. This means that development initiatives need to be managed. This thesis presents an overall consideration model for leading maintenance in digitalised manufacturing. In short, the role of a maintenance manager is changing from that of a technical manager into a leader of people and organisations in change. Further, the effects of Smart Maintenance can be followed up using maintenance performance indicators (PIs). This thesis analyses 170 PIs and structures them into 13 categories.

Thirdly, a strategic approach to Smart Maintenance helps in structuring such an implementation. This thesis proposes a strategy development process for Smart Maintenance implementation. The process is cyclical and continuously assesses the maintenance organisation to find new improvement areas. It thus continuously develops maintenance organisations and their way of working with Smart Maintenance.

All studies are related to the diffusion of innovations (DOI) theory, to structure the findings into a framework that supports organisational innovation in maintenance. This is a novel perspective in both research and practice. The framework provided in this thesis can be used as guidance by industry practitioners as they implement Smart Maintenance. Thus, industrial companies can continue their development towards digitalisation and move towards increasingly competitive and sustainable production systems.