Service Automation

Abstract

Throughout the life cycle of an industrial installation, services play an important role. Discussion of service in an industrial context very often refers only to “after sales services” for a product, i.e., keeping it operational through maintenance and repair. Yet when planning a factory, engineering may be one of the services provided, and in operation, most logistics transports are services. A fast and effective industrial service, supporting plants with a broad spectrum of assistance from emergency repair to prescriptive maintenance, rests on two legs: the provision and analysis of the vast variety of information required by service personnel to figure out what is going on and the remedy for the situation, including physical interaction with the equipment and transport of people and equipment. While the automation of physical interaction is limited, data management for efficient servicing, including optimized logistics for transport, is increasingly expanding throughout the service industry. This chapter discusses the basic requirements for the automation of service (predominantly but not limited to after sales services) and gives examples of how the challenging issues involved can be solved.