Research Article

The present status and future growth of maintenance in US manufacturing: results from a pilot survey

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA
² Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, University of Cincinnati, 560 Baldwin Hall, 2600 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA
³ U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8230, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
⁴ 2300 Hayward St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

^* Corresponding author: xnjin@umich.edu

Received: 29 October 2015
Accepted: 26 February 2016

Abstract

A research study was conducted (1) to examine the practices employed by US manufacturers to achieve productivity goals and (2) to understand what level of intelligent maintenance technologies and strategies are being incorporated into these practices. This study found that the effectiveness and choice of maintenance strategy were strongly correlated to the size of the manufacturing enterprise; there were large differences in adoption of advanced maintenance practices and diagnostics and prognostics technologies between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Despite their greater adoption of maintenance practices and technologies, large manufacturing organizations have had only modest success with respect to diagnostics and prognostics and preventive maintenance projects. The varying degrees of success with respect to preventative maintenance programs highlight the opportunity for larger manufacturers to improve their maintenance practices and use of advanced prognostics and health management (PHM) technology. The future outlook for manufacturing PHM technology among the manufacturing organizations considered in this study was overwhelmingly positive; many manufacturing organizations have current and planned projects in this area. Given the current modest state of implementation and positive outlook for this technology, gaps, future trends, and roadmaps for manufacturing PHM and maintenance strategy are presented.