Abstract:

Many intellectual, societal, business and technological forces are continuously pushing forward the frontiers of science. When combined, they provide an umbrella for generating new fields and exploring new grounds. One such a new field is e-Maintenance. e-Maintenance addresses new needs and provides various benefits in form of increased availability, reduced lifecycle cost and increased customer value. However, it suffers from lack of a commonly defined basis supporting the existence of e-Maintenance and determining the essential components inherent in the e-Maintenance domain. In this paper, we suggest an initial set of components that serve as the groundwork of the e-Maintenance universe. The set outlines ten initial components. These are definition, business, organization, product, service, methodology, technology, information, customer, and education and training. The paper also suggests a definition of e-Maintenance, places e-Maintenance in the context of other e-Domains, and elicits e-Maintenance intellectual opportunities and challenges to be met by both the academia and industry.