Application of Industrial Internet for Equipment Asset Management in Social Digitalization Platform Based on System Engineering Using Fuzzy DEMATEL-TOPSIS

Abstract

In any industry, Equipment Asset Management (EAM) is at the core of the production activities. With the rapid development of Industrial Internet technologies and platforms, the EAM based on the Industrial Internet has become an important development trend. Meanwhile, the paradigm of EAM is changing, from a single machine to integrated systems, from the phase of using them to the end of their lifecycle, from breakdown maintenance to predictive maintenance, and from local decision-making to collaborative optimization. However, because of the lack of a unified understanding of the Industrial Internet platforms (IIPs) and the lack of a comprehensive reference architecture and detailed implementation framework, the implementation of EAM projects will face greater risks according to special needs in different industries. Based on the method of system engineering, this study proposes a general reference model and a reference architecture of implementation for the Industrial Internet Solution for Industrial Equipment Asset Management (I3EAM). Further, to help enterprise to evaluate and select their best-fit I3EAM scheme and platform partner, we proposed a set of performance indicators of I3EAM schemes and a quantitative decision-making method based on fuzzy DEMATEL-TOPSIS. Finally, a case study for an I3EAM in automated container terminals was conducted. In the multi-criteria decision environment with complex uncertainty, the project group identified the I3EAM metrics priorities and social digitalization platforms that were more in line with the actual needs of the automated container terminal and firms. The complexity and time of the decision-making process were dramatically reduced. In terms of feasibility and validity, the decision result was positively verified by the feedback from the enterprise implementation. The given model, architecture, and method in this study can create a certain reference value for various industrial enterprises to carry out the analysis and top-level planning of their I3EAM needs and choose the partner for co-implementation. In addition, the research results of this study have the potential to support the construction of standard systems and the planning and optimization of the cross-domain social platform, etc.