Knowledge management in the maintenance of thermal process plants

Knowledge management in maintenance has become a critical success factor. System availability requirements, cost pressures, increasing complexity of systems and, especially, knowledge-intensive maintenance strategies are just some of the reasons why the systematic management of knowledge is becoming increasingly important. The knowledge management solutions mainly used in practice today are – like a library – focused on the archiving and retrieval of information. Meanwhile, the progressive transformation of maintenance into an engineering discipline receives rather less attention. Using the example of condition-based maintenance of thermal process plants, this article will describe how knowledge management and maintenance methods can complement each other, without neglecting practical maintenance, with knowledge managers forming the link to operational practice. Document management continues to play an important role, but even more emphasis is given to the use and creation of knowledge. After all, what good is a great library if no one reads the books?