Abstract
Recent technological advances, such as Wireless Sensor and Ad-hoc Networks, Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, multi-agent systems, etc. led to the emergence of control paradigms and architectures, where information processing and decision making are distributed/decentralized over several smart production objects (machines, robots, products, etc.). Indeed, a growing research effort focused on developing distributed control architectures, where production equipment (machines, robots, etc.) are endowed with some kind of intelligence to carry production planning, control, and maintenance engineering tasks. However, only a limited number of works focused on developing smart/intelligent product approaches, where products play an active role in the decision processes. Within the smart/intelligent product community, only a few works are interested in endowing products with capabilities that make them able to deal with disturbances and problems related to maintenance engineering, and to influence maintenance decisions and strategies in an autonomous, adaptive and resilient way. This position paper investigates literature to shed light on maintenance distribution possibilities. Important questions are addressed, such as: What kinds of information and decisions are distributed in maintenance engineering problems? How is such distribution achieved so far? What active roles do smart/intelligent production objects, especially products, endorse in such architectures? What are the benefits of such distribution, and how does it impact maintenance tasks in smart factories of the future? And finally, what are the challenges and future research perspectives that are still worth investigating to foster developments in this field?