Good maintenance keeps industry healthy Four academic institutions have combined forces to develop new methodology for managing maintenance in industry and communicating the outcomes to stakeholders. Industrial Technologies © Shutterstock For industry to stay competitive, it needs strong maintenance management aimed at industrial plants. This is a priority that involves many disciplines such as information and communication technology (ICT), machine diagnostics, machine economics, management planning, human resources and much more. The EU-funded project 'Integrated maintenance planning' (Imapla) is bringing together three EU academic institutions and one Chilean university to exchange knowledge and develop new methods in this respect. Each partner is focusing on specific themes and decision making (DM) areas in maintenance management. One area is maintenance policy planning, based on reliability, availability analysis and lifecycle costing, as well as maintenance policy modelling and optimisation. Another is condition-based maintenance (CBM) and e-maintenance, focusing particularly on condition monitoring and prognosis. A third is maintenance resource planning with emphasis on spare parts inventory planning. Exchange programmes, laboratory training, lectures, workshops and seminars have enabled intense knowledge transfer to support the project's objectives. In particular, PhD students and researchers have undertaken international exchanges to gain knowledge on research advances in maintenance. Researchers and professors have held courses, seminars and lectures to communicate the findings of the project so far and investigate related issues. Industrial tutoring was organised in Chile as well, ensuring that the project's results have an impact beyond Europe. Moreover, a workshop on 'Maintenance and energy efficiency for sustainability: an academic and industrial point of view' was co-organised with M4SM (Maintenance for Sustainable Manufacturing), under the organisation Integrated Management Systems (IMS). This event targeted graduate and undergraduate students, as well as young researchers. Another workshop on Product and Asset Life Cycle Management (PALM) was mainly for PhD students and professors from various universities. Joint publications emerging from the project have been presented at international conferences, while articles, books and teaching material are under preparation as well. This supports the position of Imapla as a formidable instrument to strengthen research partnerships and advances in the maintenance field. Innovation related to industrial maintenance will surely benefit, both in Europe and America. Keywords IMAPLA
