Utilisation of maintenance information to gain predictability : An exploratory case study in the manufacturing industry, Volvo CE

Abstract: In today’s manufacturing industry, addressing maintenance functions is essential to increase effectiveness and productivity. With the present era of digitalisation and technology, all data is enabled to be shared and integrated within the organisations. Increased advancement of complex productions requires consequently greater performance maintenance systems leading to challenges in monitoring processes. Recent research indicates that there are deficiencies regarding maintenance when connecting technical- and organisational aspects. Therefore, it becomes engaging to investigate how to support the decision-making and how to achieve predictability by anticipating unplanned disruptions, breakdowns and failures. The study was commenced to analyse how organisations can utilise maintenance information in order to gain predictability. The research was conducted by using a qualitative approach gathering data through unobtrusive measures, interviews and observations, all being performed at a production manufacturing site. The collected data allowed the research questions to be answered, showing which maintenance information becomes critical to enable prediction in order to prevent or eliminate equipment breakdowns as well as presenting how the information should be utilised within the organisation.  The findings emphasise that in order to achieve predictability and preventive measures, organisations must assess the specific dimensions of downtime, severity and frequency. Both planned- and unplanned maintenance information should be logged with rich descriptions, having common inputs in all systems to induce data transferability. It is justified that systems should be integrated and not individually used, inducing the absolute necessity of standards. All involved individuals with distinct roles and responsibilities should have clear apprehensions about the necessity of maintenance as well as how it brings value. This supports the view of motivation where recognition and achievement become crucial to increase performance efforts, encouraging correct and detailed system inputs. Additionally, mutual understandings that all agree upon lead to maintenance systems becoming an influential organisational function that fully supports the decision-making.