Abstract
As Life Cycle Engineering (LCE), market competition and environmental issues are becoming more prominent, the subject of maintenance has gained wide attention and its role redefined as a central component in a product’s life. This added responsibility demands that the maintenance process be more systematic and much more economically competitive. This paper presents the concept of Total Maintenance as part of Total Life Cycle Engineering, specifies its role with respect to LCE and describes the tools and methods required to realize it. In particular, we stress the need to model the maintenance process itself, along product state and usage scenarios. The paper discusses new tools required to realize this approach, in particular, (a) closing the loop by sensing the actual condition of the product, (b) product state models and algorithms based on cost analysis for making decisions during and at the end of the product’s life, and (c) online guided maintenance (OGM).