Understanding the aspects of collecting installed base information in manufacturing context - Towards a future research agenda

Abstract

Previous studies in the manufacturing context have highlighted the important role of maintenance work, or field technicians, in manually collected installed base information (IBI). These studies have brought up various challenges related to accuracy and availability of this manually gathered IBI. However, the current research has not yet managed to identify underlying cultural and contextual aspects affecting this manual data collection work. Therefore this paper proposes a research agenda focusing on gaining deeper understanding of this data collection work by ethnographic research setting opening up new theoretical and practical insights to this part of modern maintenance work.