Smart retrofitting in maintenance: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The last decade saw the rise of digitalization and data-supported decision making in the manufacturing industry: the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This trend, also known as Industry 4.0, allows manufacturing enterprises to discover manufacturing uncertainties and measure their real manufacturing capability. One of the ways in which Industry 4.0 trends have been exploited is in the improvement of maintenance, which went from following planning-focused paradigms to more proactive-focused stances. Enabling the Industry 4.0 vision for maintenance purposes has historically required companies to either replace or upgrade their existing legacy devices. It is through the latter course of action that Smart retrofitting in maintenance (SRM) intends to bring value to enterprises. This work aims to present a systematic literature review on SRM, utilizing the oft-cited PRISMA methodology. Through this analysis, a definition of SRM that reflects the current state of the art is proposed. Furthermore, the research in SRM applied in the context of different maintenance strategies is assessed (i.e. reactive, planned, proactive and strategic maintenance), and the most common drivers and challenges in SRM are presented. Finally, a roadmap for the implementation of SRM is proposed. The analysis of the SRM literature reveals that there are important research opportunities in the exploitation of SRM for strategic maintenance and asset management. The authors hope that this document leads to the consolidation of a new research area that aims to add value to maintenance in enterprises through the application of smart retrofitting in preexisting legacy devices.