E-maintenance and information logistics: aspects of content format

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe aspects of content sharing within e-maintenance, with a view to merging the two areas of maintenance and ICT in a content management perspective. Design/methodology/approach - The approach is an explorative literature study covering aspects of ICT. The analysis is founded on theories related to maintenance and maintenance support. The conclusions of the study are corroborated by experiences from earlier software development and testing. Findings - Most existing contributions to the e-maintenance debate seem to suffer from too wide a gap between data processing and knowledge management. This tendency can be due to too great a focus on data collection, without any clear identification of the stakeholders' requirements. Hence, a mature e-maintenance solution should focus on the enhancement of service-oriented information logistics based on content sharing for an output-based information strategy. Research limitations/implications - This study focuses on the needs of content format and transformation content, which includes data format, data structures and data type for objects that are relevant for the maintenance process. Hence, further research could include aspects of infrastructure and service architecture, which are on a higher level of an e-maintenance solution. Practical implications - The paper contributes with knowledge that supports decisions about content format in the development of an e-maintenance solution. This can in turn support a reduction of maintenance-related hazards through the improved use of ICT. Originality/value - This paper describes the importance of content management within the e-maintenance approach. Hence, the paper has implications for both practitioners and researchers as described above.