Essentials for Digitalizing Maintenance Activities in SMEs

Abstract

Numerous research has for long studied the challenges and opportunities within digitalization of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). While SMEs are financially limited compared to larger organization, previous research has succeeded in identifying potential focus areas that allow SMEs to participate in the industrial progression. Among these, pragmatic research on exploitation of existing resources have been highlighted. Therefore, this paper intends to report the findings of a single case study in a Danish SME, where the objective is to understand how technological sub-factors influence the prototyping of digital initiatives for advancing maintenance activities. The study begins with mapping the maintenance activities, along with the IT infrastructure. From here, relevant data is analyzed to understand their shortcomings, where the most dominant relates to how technicians report service orders. The paper concludes by identifying two sets of three technological sub-factors that strongly influence the digitalization of the case company's maintenance activities.