Digitalization as Key Enabler for Asset Management (DIGEST)

The DIGEST project offers an engineering-centered perspective on assets by integrating their description, operating models, and data management. The project’s primary focus is on operations that can impact on the asset’s dynamic status. The goal is to dynamically include these activities in the decision-making process, with the aim of increasing value creation while also considering the effect on the asset’s status. Decisions on maintenance are crucial in this scenario. To extend the useful lives of production assets while keeping costs in mind, the DIGEST project must investigate tools for integrating service and production scheduling, considering factors such as loss-of-production cost, maintenance cost, and all associated opportunity costs.

To deliver the most effective forecast scenario, managers should prioritize various tasks or actions, decide whether to replace or repair items, and determine the appropriate timing by performing a «what-if» analysis of alternative scenarios. This requires a comprehensive strategy that utilizes a unique design, as well as reliability-based, and it considers the industrial system.

In other words, the DIGEST project proposes integrating advanced tools and methodologies within a framework that dynamically incorporates industrial quality solutions, production activities, and human-based aspects, which are the principles adopted by the EU under the concept Industry 5.0, while also considering the impact on critical business services such as Health and Education. We are convinced that digitalization can significantly reduce costs and increase transparency, allowing for the development of more complex yet efficient business models. 

To better understand how these various elements come together, here’s an overview of the DIGEST project, highlighting its key subprojects and characteristics. This visual representation illustrates how the components of the project are interconnected and how they collectively contribute to the overall strategy.