Does Prognostics Make Maintenance Smarter?

Much technical development in the domain of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) has been dedicated to the advancement of prognostics, i.e., estimating remaining equipment life. Assuming that one has a reasonably accurate remaining life estimate, the question that then needs to be asked is: What happens next? The answer may not always be “perform maintenance now.” In fact, the answer is a bit more complicated and depends on a number of different factors. It is argued here that a methodical way to trade off different objectives should be pursued to maximize the operator's benefit. This talk will provide a perspective for some of the elements that one may need to consider and one possible path towards realizing post-prognostic decision making.