Respecting the power of knowledge: Reducing design weakness in factory equipment by facilitating knowledge reuse, with a maintenance perspective

Abstract

Earlier research, at the company this thesis has been carried out, has shown that

design weakness is a major contributor to machine breakdowns, and struggles with knowledge re-use is believed to be a cause for this. Therefore, this thesis covers two areas: (1) To try to find if there is a correlation between breakdown losses and the project documentation, and (2) Find a solution to improve the existing acquisition process in the aspect of knowledge management.

The analysis of project documentation was conducted in a manual and qualita­ tive manner, which leaves room for improvement. In the end, it did not give clear evidence for a correlation, but a few indications, such as delays and lacking docu­ mentation for testing, seemed to cause more breakdowns.

To improve lessons learned, a tool was developed which served to replace the existing

method which had been deemed too cumbersome and not a worthwhile task from

earlier research at the company. This tool consists of an app created in Power Apps, connected to a database of lessons, which is believed to improve several aspects of lessons learned as well as eliminate existing pitfalls the existing method had fallen into relating to lessons learned. It is recommended to continue exploring the reasons for poor machine performance, as this thesis could not conclude with certainty that documentation is the root­ cause. Furthermore, the analysis-process could be improved greatly as there was no predefined way of conducting it, and conducting it in a more systematic manner

could yield better results. Finally, lessons learned within the case company can

be further improved in the future by involving elements from industry 4.0 by, for example implementing direct connections to the machines to increase the amount of data; increasing automatic communications between softwares; using machine learning to automatically create lessons and ultimately make decisions based on these lessons. Following through with these imp rovement s, and other as well, for increased knowledge re-use can be incredibly beneficial for any company as less resources will have to be put into reinventing the wheel and helps avoid making mistakes over and over again.