“Down with the downtime!”: Towards an integrated maintenance and production management process based on predictive maintenance techniques

Abstract

We propose the use of predictive maintenance techniques to faciliate conflict management in manufacturing. A conflict represents a deviation between manufacturing planning and the reality within the manufacturing process. One common cause for conflicts is the unanticipated functional loss of a machine, component, or tool caused by aging and wear. Early detection of such situations can help to limit the impact of conflicts or to avoid conflicts altogether. We propose to use predictive maintenance techniques to automatically detect machine problems at an early stage, and, in assistance with a human expert, to consider the machine's scheduled down-time/repair-time in production planning. The realizationof the idea presupposes a close integration of automation, manufacturing execution, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) functionalities, as well as human expertise. The paper introduces the idea and provides a preliminary duscussion on architectural aspects.