To read this content please select one of the options below:

Adapting the SHEL model in investigating industrial maintenance

Lasse Metso (LUT School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland)
Salla Marttonen (LUT School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland)
Nils E. Thenent (Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK)
Linda B. Newnes (Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK)

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

ISSN: 1355-2511

Article publication date: 14 March 2016

992

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify and categorise problems in knowledge management of industrial maintenance, and support successful maintenance through adapting the SHEL model. The SHEL model has been used widely in airplane accident investigations and in aviation maintenance, but not in industrial maintenance.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected by two separate surveys with open-ended questions from maintenance customers and service providers in Finland. The collected data were coded according to SHEL model -derived themes and analysed thematically with NVivo.

Findings

The authors found that the adapted SHELO model works well in the industrial maintenance context. The results show that the most important knowledge management problems in the area are caused by interactions between Liveware and Software (information unavailability), Liveware and Liveware (information sharing), Liveware and Organisation (communication) and Software and Software (information integrity).

Research limitations/implications

The data were collected only from Finnish companies and from the perspective of knowledge management. In practice there are also other kinds of issues in industrial maintenance. This can be a topic for future research.

Practical implications

The paper presents a new systematic method to analyse and sort knowledge management problems in industrial maintenance. Both maintenance service customers and suppliers can improve their maintenance processes by using the dimensions of the SHELO model.

Originality/value

The SHEL model has not been used in industrial maintenance before. In addition, the new SHELO model takes also interactions without direct human influence into account. Previous research has listed conditions for successful maintenance extensively, but this kind of prioritisation tools are needed to support decision making in practice.

Keywords

Citation

Metso, L., Marttonen, S., Thenent, N.E. and Newnes, L.B. (2016), "Adapting the SHEL model in investigating industrial maintenance", Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 62-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/JQME-12-2014-0059

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles