Modular maintenance instructions architecture (MMIA)

PurposeThe study consists of a literature study and a case study. The need for a method via which to handle instruction complexity was identified in both studies. The proposed method was developed based on methods from the literature and experience from the case company.Design/methodology/approachThe purpose of the study presented in this paper is to investigate how linking different maintenance domains in a modular maintenance instruction architecture can help reduce the complexity of maintenance instructions.FindingsThe proposed method combines knowledge from the operational and physical domains to reduce the number of instruction task variants. In a case study, the number of instruction task modules was reduced from 224 to 20, covering 83% of the maintenance performed on emergency shutdown valves.Originality/valueThe study showed that the other methods proposed within the body of maintenance literature mainly focus on the development of modular instructions, without the reduction of complexity and non-value-adding variation observed in the product architecture literature.