Emerging Practices in Risk-Based Maintenance Management Driven by Industrial Transitions: Multi-Case Studies and Reflections

Abstract

Risk-based maintenance is a well-known maintenance concept in the oil and gas sector, especially in the Norwegian continental shelf and has been supported by the NORSOK Z-008 standard since 2011. Green transition and Industry 4.0 with its digitization and technology transformations have enforced the risk-based maintenance program to be dynamic and emerging. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of Industry 4.0 on risk-based maintenance and define the new emerging version of risk-based maintenance. The study is based on seven case studies that have been conducted between 2017 and 2024 within the Norwegian continental shelf. It is found that Industry 4.0 impacts the entire management loop of risk-based maintenance, it enforces more toward the project phase and built-in features, it enhances the data collection and their fitness to purpose, and it enables reinforcement learning for the entire maintenance management program. On the other hand, it creates a new data flow and increases the system’s complexity, uncertainty, and associated risks.