Directions of Change in Maintenance Strategy in the Industry 4.0 Era – Pilot Study Results

This study explores the transformative impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on maintenance strategies, using a two-phase methodology to first catalogue existing maintenance practices, before assessing how these modern technologies are reshaping these strategies. The research reveals a strong bias towards preventive maintenance (PM), with more than half of the companies surveyed using this approach to prevent equipment failures and minimise operational downtime. A clear pattern emerges linking the adoption of PM to company size. This suggests that larger organisations are more likely to have the resources and infrastructure to effectively implement such predictive maintenance strategies. The study highlights the increasing incorporation of Industry 4.0 technologies such as the Internet of Things, cybersecurity measures and cloud computing across different sectors, although adoption rates of big data analytics and augmented reality remain comparatively low. Despite this, there’s a clear trend towards the adoption of more sophisticated, predictive maintenance methods, as evidenced by a significant increase in the use of predictive maintenance techniques and a corresponding decrease in the reliance on corrective maintenance. This change reflects the wider industry move towards efficiency, reliability and the proactive prevention of equipment failure, as well as highlighting the key role of technological advances in optimising maintenance practices.