Open Access

Florian Defèr, Frederick Birtel, Jana Frank, Philipp Jussen

• Today, maintenance exceeds this definition, it is significantly more. In many companies, it plays the role of an incubator for development and drives digital transformation forward. The very essence of Industrie 4.0 is the optimisation of the flow of information within as well as outside of a company to accelerate the adjustment of company organisations in the context of increasing competitive pressure. Because of the variety of interfaces, information and data that is available as well as its service character, maintenance lends itself easily as the area of choice for a company to make Industrie 4.0 real. Whilst doing so, the aim is not to equip employees with the latest “gimmick“ for order processment or to be the company with the highest number of lighthouse projects. Instead, maintenance ensures reliable and cost-efficient production and, consequently, the primary creation of added value of the manufacturing company. Those who were identified as top performers during the “Smart Maintenance“ consortium benchmarking by FIR at RWTH Aachen University gain particular useful ideas twice as often as other follower companies directly from staff, thus releasing the right potential. Information and data help to reach these goals and transfer the vision of smart maintenance into actual pratice. But what is smart maintenance exactly and how far along are you in the development of your individual smart maintenance concept?