Mobile Applications and its Potential to Maintenance

Abstract

Mobile technology is constantly evolving, most notably following the advent of Smartphone technology. As this equipment becomes faster, more powerful, and less expensive, it will become an excellent platform for the development of ergonomic and effective maintenance tools. The present article describes an application that allows for an easy, organized and systematic way of improving the process of recording physical equipment data within the field of maintenance management, thus making the following contribution one of immense value to the field by increasing the accuracy of data storage. The first, and arguably the most crucial step, necessary to elaborating the equipment dossier is to register its intrinsic data, planning data, and so on. Although, this phase is perceived as the easiest, it is usually one of the weakest points in equipment registering. Having this issue in mind, an application was developed in order to facilitate equipment registering. The ultimate goal was to increase the efficiency of the registering process and equipment dossier, in addition to the processes involved during maintenance management. The present approach also aims to demonstrate that it is possible to develop effective maintenance via low-cost tools that do not require specialized equipment to function effectively. Mobile applications provide a huge opportunity to improve the working conditions experienced by maintenance teams. From the initial process of regularly organizing workplace equipment, to operation issues when carrying out work orders, mobile technology can help improve the efficiency of various processes. The application allows effective and systematic way to improve the process of recording equipment, and is designed for mobile devices running Android (Google’s system), or industrial equipment like PDAs running windows mobile – for example the Lynx model from Datalogic.