Modelling condition-based maintenance to deliver a service to machine tool users

This paper describes the development and validation of two software tools to explore the relationship between prognostics and health management (PHM) technologies and servitization in the machine tool industry. The software tools are based on software tools that were originally developed to analyse the costs and benefits of PHM technology in the aerospace industry. The development was initiated following an extensive review of relevant literature on both servitization and PHM technology. This review revealed the fact that the servitization literature makes almost no mention of the use of PHM technology to support servitization and the PHM literature makes almost no mention of the servitization business model that might justify expenditure on this technology. The tools model the life cycles of two sets of machine tools, with and without PHM technology, before calculating the net present value of the costs and benefits of PHM in the context of a servitization business model. Although the data used in the tools are hypothetical, the approach taken in the models was validated through interviews with a major machine tool vendor. This research extends existing knowledge on servitization as published in the management literature by linking it to research into PHM as published in the systems engineering literature. The paper concludes by indicating the need for more empirical data on the reliability of machine tool subsystems in order to increase confidence in the value of PHM technology to support machine tool servitization.