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Grand Features of System Development in Engineering Asset Management: A Practitioner’s Perspective Within the Wind Energy Sector

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Engineering Asset Management Review

Part of the book series: Engineering Asset Management Review

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Abstract

Purpose: The paper explores the system pitfalls (i.e. grand features) that impact complex engineering asset management (EAM) practices, in particular those of wind energy assets. It extracts the practitioners’ perspective and their ‘de facto concepts’. Later, it transforms them into system requirements in order to design an integrated system of wind energy asset management. Therefore, four sub-purposes are defined as follows: (a) to review the current academic contributions within EAM in order to compare them with the empirical findings of the wind energy sector and determine whether wind energy is ahead or behind; (b) to review the applied research approaches within EAM research in order to enable explorations at such a system level; (c) to extract the practitioners’ perspective and understanding of critical system pitfalls and mitigation requirements; and (d) to enhance the system development procedures based on the practitioners’ perspective in order to mitigate system pitfalls.

Design/methodology/approach: The first part of the paper is based on a comprehensive review of academic contributions and research approaches. The second part proceeds with a qualitative cross-case study within the wind energy industry.

Findings: The paper illustrates a number of significant issues in engineering asset management as follows: (a) the comparison between the state-of-the-art of current academic contributions within EAM and empirical findings of EAM in the wind energy sector shows that the wind energy sector is falling behind in terms of system integration, even though it utilizes and implements advanced technologies and techniques as do other industrial sectors. (b) Current applied research approaches within EAM deal with a detailed level of analysis and need to extend towards system-level of analysis. (c) Practitioners’ perspective/understanding and a number of critical system pitfalls and requirements for EAM systems that need to be considered within the system design process are as follows: system scalability; life cycle synchronize-ability; business domain adaptability; context adaptability; system integrity; technical interoperability and operational interoperability. (d) The system pitfalls (i.e. grand features) of the EAM system should be analysed during the system development process and considered; therefore, modified system development procedures have been proposed.

Practical implications: Engineering asset management systems are rapidly becoming perceived as the solution space for wide-complex industrial applications. Therefore, the paper is first considered as a reference line of both academic research and industrial development to explore complex EAM systems and their pitfalls at system level.

Originality/value: The paper provides a systematic way to explore ‘system-level pitfalls’ within system development process that impact EAM excellence level.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the Centre for Industrial asset management (CIAM) of University of Stavanger, Norway, and the Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy (NORCOWE) for funding this research work. The acknowledgment also goes to the reviewers of Engineering Asset Management Series (EAMR) for their relevant comments which enhanced the overall paper quality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Industrial System Management, Espoo, Finland

    Idriss El-Thalji

  2. Centre for Industrial Asset Management (CIAM), University of Stavanger, 4036, Stavanger, Norway

    Jayantha Prasanna Liyanage

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  1. Idriss El-Thalji
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  2. Jayantha Prasanna Liyanage
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El-Thalji, I., Liyanage, J.P. (2015). Grand Features of System Development in Engineering Asset Management: A Practitioner’s Perspective Within the Wind Energy Sector. In: Engineering Asset Management Review. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/8663_2015_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/8663_2015_3

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