Wissensmanagement in der smarten Instandhaltung

Today, knowledge is more and more becoming a competitive factor, especially in the increasingly networked work environment. This applies in particular to maintenance, which plays a key role in ensuring the availability of production facilities. In the course of its tasks, maintenance is dependent on a wide range of different types of knowledge. The challenge here is often that the knowledge relevant to maintenance is in many cases not stored or only documented in an unstructured manner and the maintenance staff is unable to access it when needed, or only with great effort. This challenge will become even more acute in the context of the transformation of maintenance to smart maintenance. In addition to the existing need for knowledge about old assets, there is also a need for knowledge about new, digital, automated and more complex technology as well as new methodological approaches (e.g., the use of predictive maintenance processes). In this context, it is important to consider that, in addition to the asset operator, a plant manufacturer or a maintenance service provider should also be included in the considerations in the context of maintenance knowledge management, since they also provide relevant knowledge content. Despite this importance, the actual implementation successes of knowledge management in maintenance are generally to be regarded as low.
This dissertation therefore focuses on the causes for the status quo on maintenance knowledge management and possible approaches that can be used to advance knowledge management for smart maintenance.
In order to gain new insights, 24 expert interviews and five case studies were conducted as part of this work. The case studies are based on the concrete findings of the expert interviews and thus deepen and sharpen the results. In the course of the research conducted, it became particularly apparent that today there is a lack of approaches in the implementation of knowledge management measures. In particular, too little attention is paid to the precise identification of knowledge relevant to a maintenance organization in the context of such projects. In addition, many of the methods or technical solutions already available today lack suitability for maintenance practice. Based on these and other findings, recommendations for action were developed within the scope of this work to support the more targeted implementation of knowledge management projects in maintenance. These include, above all, ensuring a holistic approach and the appropriate methodological orientation based on the maintenance knowledge relevant for an organization. This work is therefore aimed not only at the scientific community, but also at practitioners with responsibility in maintenance, in order to provide them with orientation and assistance in the implementation of an efficient and effective maintenance knowledge management.