E-Maintenance, a means to high overall efficiency

Today the number of industries putting emphasis on maximising Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is rapidly increasing. Instead of looking only at one aspect of production, modern enterprises seek to plant a series of joint activities, aimed at minimising losses, by improving on Performance, Quality and Availability at the same time. Emphasising these three factors simultaneously leads to the introduction of efficient maintenance, including sound strategies, such as Condition Based Maintenance (CBM). The incorporation of key enabling technologies within a Condition Based Maintenance strategy, such as wireless networking, internet & mobile computing, minature sensing devices and location awareness, has paved the way to the introduction of e- Maintenance. The paper looks at the key features pertaining to the successful implementation of e-Maintenance into modern industry. It then highlights steps taken towards the design and implementation of an e-Maintenance architecture within the EU Integrated Project 'Dynamite'. The paper concludes with a discussion on current challenges and future prospects of e-Maintenance.