Open Access

Florian Defèr

• The maintenance department is an incubator for further developments in many companies and drivers for digital transformation. The basic essence of industry 4.0 is the optimisation of the information flows within and outside the company for accelerated adjustment of corporate organisations in the context of increasing competitive pressure. Due to the multitude of interfaces, information and data streams as well as their service characteristic, the maintenance department is ready to take the next step towards industry 4.0 and smart maintenance. Despite endless publications and advertisements, the promise of smart maintenance is not technology but productivity. To achieve sustainable transformation, use cases need to be transformed into business cases. For that matter, lighthouse projects are not the key to success but transforming your departments, processes, data management, reporting and so on is. Another big misconception of industry 4.0: Transformational change does not happen with sensors or dashboards but with people. Therefore, companies which already invested in their people, culture and in lean six sigma have a head start. Nevertheless, it is no reason to rest. The journey to smart maintenance is long and no company can truly say that they achieved it already. In order to advance in industry 4.0 a digitisation roadmap is the best tool to show the big picture and at the same time link this vague vision to concrete measures. It is the only way to justify investment in infrastructure and guide your people into change. But the first two questions on your way to smart maintenance are always the hardest: 1. What do I aim to achieve and how can industry 4.0 contribute to my goals? What measure am I already pursuing to reach that goal and how do they further my aspirations?