Towards Integrated Online Support for Field Service Engineers in a Flexible Manufacturing Context

Providing effective and efficient support to maintenance engineers is a significant issue facing industries operating in a flexible environment. In this paper we present a system framework, which integrates various techniques of Expert Systems, such as Model-Based (MB), Rule-Based (RB), and Case-Based (CB) reasoning methods, to supply on-line maintenance and diagnostic support. The proposed framework is generic and its usage is illustrated using a “white-goods” manufacturing example. The paper includes a review of the application domain, the identification of the particular research issues to be addressed, a description of the system architecture and its components, and a discussion of related issues.