On the importance of combining “the new” with “the old” – One important prerequisite for maintenance in Industry 4.0

Development and technological advancement within Industry 4.0 is on top of agendas worldwide. The prediction that cost of technology will decrease while computational power will increase may lead to a maintenance community putting too much trust in technological advancement, leaving basic maintenance concepts and management underdeveloped or even unimplemented in the future. This paper will, through a case study, exemplify the importance of combining basic maintenance concepts and management, e.g., early equipment management, predetermined preventive maintenance, and root-cause failure analysis and elimination, with technological advancement, e.g., predictive maintenance, cyber-physical systems, internet of things, and big data, in order to increase total maintenance effectiveness.