Challenges in maintenance

Unplanned downtime for maintenance is expensive: in 2022, the estimated costs for Fortune Global 500 industrial companies alone amounted to almost 1.5 trillion US dollars. To understand the challenges companies face and evaluate digital technologies as potential solutions, Fraunhofer IPK and Contact Software interviewed experts from the maintenance industry.

The main challenges identified were the lack of qualified specialists, the search for information and the availability of spare parts. The survey also highlights how important it is to be able to plan for breakdowns due to maintenance measures. Digital solutions such as IoT platforms and digital twins support this by monitoring the machine's condition with sensors and analyzing it with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). This enables companies to carry out preventive maintenance (predictive maintenance) instead of failure-based maintenance, thereby reducing costs caused by unplanned downtime. According to those surveyed, however, the digital twin has rarely been used to date.

Supporting employees with their qualifications

Training and further education are still among the most common qualification measures used to train specialist staff. The use of digital assistance systems offers promising opportunities to provide targeted support for service teams and less qualified employees in maintenance. Technologies such as augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) have great potential here, but are currently only used by a few companies.

Employees in maintenance have an above-average need for information, for example on the spare parts concerned. The survey makes it clear that some of the data in mechanical engineering is already available digitally, whereas in vehicle construction, information such as documents tends to be available in analog form. A well-structured database increases quality and can significantly reduce the number of search queries - especially if the information is recorded and processed digitally.

The expert survey on which these results are based comprised 22 questions and took place from mid-February to the end of June 2024. The participants mainly come from the automotive industry and metalworking and work in areas such as strategic planning, operational planning or practical implementation.

Contact Software, http://www.contact-software.com