Maintaining and checking production elements is a major challenge in the age of the smart factory: cyber-physical systems, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things bring with them a new level of networking and complexity. The German Academy of Science and Engineering - acatech for short - is convinced that this challenge can be mastered with smart maintenance. The study, conducted jointly with the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML, now provides information on the degree of maturity of previous efforts to establish smart maintenance in practice. It is based on a survey of 96 companies from various sectors.

The key findings of the survey are

• Most companies have no or only a very weak database that could provide information about malfunctions that will soon occur or the need for maintenance measures. More than half (57%) of the companies surveyed stated that elements in the factory are only maintained once a problem has already occurred.
• The knowledge of how to maintain and check elements in a factory is often in the heads of individual employees. This knowledge should be documented and made available to other employees (e.g. in the form of a wiki on the intranet) in order to be able to react in the event of staff absence. This does not happen in 27% of companies.
• Existing personal knowledge should not only be documented, but also continuously expanded - precisely because work processes can be improved through technical innovations. Nevertheless, more than half (53%) of the companies surveyed do not offer any special training measures in the area of digitalization for experienced employees.

The technological possibilities and the high demands of smart maintenance are the biggest challenges for maintenance personnel in many companies. The study therefore outlines a target vision of smart maintenance for the manufacturing industry in Germany and presents best-practice applications. The study also provides companies with a roadmap, similar to the 'Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index' developed by acatech, which is intended to point the way to smart maintenance.