Open Access

Volker Stich, Philipp Jussen, Roman Emonts-Holley

• A rising complexity in production, volatility of orders and abundance of variation of products while time of planning is shortened calls for a flexible and powerful maintenance management. The goal of this paper is to introduce a concept which maximizes availability of production and minimizes contingency risk, maintenance expenses and cost of operation. Neither established reactive maintenance nor stand-alone condition-monitoring-systems deliver viable and efficient solutions. Most of the time, Condition-Monitoring Systems (CMS), Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) are custom-designed stand-alone solutions and thus far cannot be used as integrated components of one optimized maintenance management system. Our concept will use “Smart Objects” to illustrate the individual machines and their maintenance-relevant components in one software application. These Smart Objects are able to declare their own need of maintenance as well as automatically allocate maintenance priorities. This allows for the first time the coordination of maintenance measures depending on machine states and production with the help of powerful, multi-objective optimization algorithms and an integrated software platform. Our concept introduces a way to realize this concept. It is methodically structured by the following procedure: The core of the concept is the Smart Object that contains a database of information that can be fed from CMS, CMMS and MES. At the same time the smart objects serve as intermediaries and data sources, thus conducting a bilateral communication between the three systems and smart objects. The smart object receives input from the CMS which determines the attrition pattern of the tool depending on the attrition curve and the worked on component. The CMS additionally transmits a forecast of the state of the tool. This forecast can be accurately enriched by the data (order and associated component) from the MES and hence be more precise. The Smart Object can therefore give an accurate forecast of when the tool will reach a certain level of attrition depending on the processed jobs. Using this data, the IPS can again set a timeframe for the next maintenance task and transmit this to the smart object. This maintenance task can be read by the MES and interpreted as a production order but with special requirements and parameters. Ideally, the MES plans this order into the setup or waiting periods of the machine, thus guaranteeing maximum machine availability.