The Need for Ecosystem 4.0 to Support Maintenance 4.0: An Aviation Assembly Line Case
Alessandro Giacotto, Henrique Costa Marques, Eduardo Afonso Pereira Barreto, Alberto Martinetti
Abstract
Manufacturing and assembling aircraft require hundreds of different machines for various process applications. The machines have different complexity and often different ages; however, they have to ensure a higher precision than other industrial fields. Recent technology advancement in maintenance approaches offers a wide range of opportunities to provide performance and availability. The paper discusses how the maintenance technologies applicable to the various machines need to be appropriately supported by a production environment, called “ecosystem”, that allows their integration within the process and their synergy with the operators. (1) A background analysis of the aircraft production environment is offered. (2) A possible framework for designing a proper ecosystem 4.0 for integrating maintenance activities with design solutions and data gathering is provided. (3) A case study based on the assembly line of specific aircraft is adopted for testing the validity of the framework. (4) Finally, a discussion highlights the critical points of the research, underlying future work.