The Adoption of Prognostic Technologies in Maintenance Decision Making: A Multiple Case Study

Progresses in prognostic maintenance technologies offer opportunities to aid the asset owner in optimal maintenance and life cycle decision making, e.g. replacement or life-time extension of physical assets. Using accurate lifetime predictions is critical for ensuring just-in-time maintenance. Although there is considerable literature on specific techniques, reports on the adoption and usage of these methods show that only a small amount of companies have applied these techniques. This study therefore investigates why and how asset owners adopted and selected specific prognostic techniques and compares this with the literature. Based on the literature, a framework on generalized routes to implement prognostic technologies for maintenance decision making will be presented. Therefore, the main assumptions and descriptions in literature on the use of prognostic technologies are expressed in several postulates. These postulates are confronted with industrial practice by a multiple-case study conducted in different industries in the Netherlands. Results show issues and challenges companies experience in applying the right prognostic techniques. Among these are the identification of the correct parameters to measure, the translation of the gathered data into useful maintenance decision support and the need for guidance in prognostic technology route determination.