machines

Article
Application of Industrial Internet for Equipment Asset
Management in Social Digitalization Platform Based on System
Engineering Using Fuzzy DEMATEL-TOPSIS
Yuguang Bao 1,2 , Xianyu Zhang 1,2 , Tongtong Zhou 1,2 , Zhihua Chen 1,2 and Xinguo Ming 1,2, *

1 Institute of Industrial Engineering and Management, School of Mechanical Engineering,

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
2 SJTUSME-COSMOPlat Joint Research Center for New Generation Industrial Intelligent Technology,
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
* Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +86-13918034401

Abstract: In any industry, Equipment Asset Management (EAM) is at the core of the production activ-
ities. With the rapid development of Industrial Internet technologies and platforms, the EAM based
on the Industrial Internet has become an important development trend. Meanwhile, the paradigm
of EAM is changing, from a single machine to integrated systems, from the phase of using them to
the end of their lifecycle, from breakdown maintenance to predictive maintenance, and from local
decision-making to collaborative optimization. However, because of the lack of a unified understand-
ing of the Industrial Internet platforms (IIPs) and the lack of a comprehensive reference architecture
and detailed implementation framework, the implementation of EAM projects will face greater risks
according to special needs in different industries. Based on the method of system engineering, this
study proposes a general reference model and a reference architecture of implementation for the
Industrial Internet Solution for Industrial Equipment Asset Management (I3EAM). Further, to help
Citation: Bao, Y.; Zhang, X.; Zhou, T.;
enterprise to evaluate and select their best-fit I3EAM scheme and platform partner, we proposed a set
Chen, Z.; Ming, X. Application of
of performance indicators of I3EAM schemes and a quantitative decision-making method based on
Industrial Internet for Equipment
Asset Management in Social
fuzzy DEMATEL-TOPSIS. Finally, a case study for an I3EAM in automated container terminals was
Digitalization Platform Based on conducted. In the multi-criteria decision environment with complex uncertainty, the project group
System Engineering Using Fuzzy identified the I3EAM metrics priorities and social digitalization platforms that were more in line
DEMATEL-TOPSIS. Machines 2022, with the actual needs of the automated container terminal and firms. The complexity and time of the
10, 1137. https://doi.org/10.3390/ decision-making process were dramatically reduced. In terms of feasibility and validity, the decision
machines10121137 result was positively verified by the feedback from the enterprise implementation. The given model,
Academic Editor: Kai Cheng architecture, and method in this study can create a certain reference value for various industrial
enterprises to carry out the analysis and top-level planning of their I3EAM needs and choose the
Received: 29 September 2022
partner for co-implementation. In addition, the research results of this study have the potential to
Accepted: 20 November 2022
support the construction of standard systems and the planning and optimization of the cross-domain
Published: 29 November 2022
social platform, etc.
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral
with regard to jurisdictional claims in Keywords: industrial internet; equipment asset management; digitalization; social digitalization
published maps and institutional affil- platform; system engineering; fuzzy DEMATEL-TOPSIS
iations.

1. Introduction
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Smart manufacturing represents the development trend of the global industry, and
This article is an open access article the integration, construction, and application of smart factories based on cyber-physical
distributed under the terms and systems are leading the change in the manufacturing paradigm. Equipment Asset Man-
conditions of the Creative Commons agement (EAM) plays an important role in a smart factory, and it becomes a necessary
Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// guarantee of achieving reliable and efficient production [1]. With the development of Indus-
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ trial Internet technologies, equipment operation and maintenance (O and M) businesses
4.0/). have shifted from traditional regular inspection and contingent maintenance to data-driven

Machines 2022, 10, 1137. https://doi.org/10.3390/machines10121137 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/machines

Machines 2022, 10, 1137 2 of 43

equipment lifecycle management and predictive maintenance [2–4]. In China, nearly 40%
of the Industrial Internet platforms focus on applications and solutions for equipment
management. Through the interconnection of machines, processes, and people, the effi-
ciency of equipment maintenance has been improved, and the networked collaborative
evolution of various production factors and business processes closely related to equipment
assets has been further realized [5,6]. Since complex equipment usually has high added
value, the initial ecosystem for the operation and maintenance services will gradually
form around the value chain of equipment [7,8], involving the equipment owners (facto-
ries/enterprises), equipment manufacturers, module suppliers, material suppliers, service
providers, etc. In addition, based on Industrial Internet platforms and technologies, many
outstanding solution providers for equipment operation and maintenance have emerged,
such as Siemens MindSphere, GE Predix, SANY ROOTCLOUD, etc. Third-party Industrial
Internet Platforms (IIPs) have become a common option for enterprises to achieve digital-
ization. Industrial enterprises leverage the platform’s technical capabilities and ecosystem
to accelerate business–IT alignment in different scenarios, including the EAM scenario.
However, the industry still lacks a unified understanding of the IIP [9], and only a
few studies have focused on the detailed implementation framework and path for special
industrial needs [10]. It is difficult for industrial enterprises to comprehensively and
precisely identify the implementation needs and choose their best-fit IIP. All of the above
factors will lead to them incurring the risk of EAM projects. In addition, according to our
previous work [11], a systematic model and reference architecture are necessary for the
collaboration platforms with various industrial enterprises across different fields. This
study also conducted a comprehensive status review of the studies on the Industrial
Internet-based EAM (Section 2). To our best knowledge and industrial investigations
across a wide range, the current research mainly focuses on the explicit technologies of
EAM schemes, while relatively few studies have focused on the comprehensive top-level
framework and implementation path. It hinders the application and synergy of Industrial
Internet technologies and platforms in the field of industrial EAM.
The research motivation and objective of this paper is to improve the capability of
complex system awareness and decision-making for EAM projects with Industrial Internet
technologies and to provide a reference for the top-level planning and effective implemen-
tation of different industrial enterprises. This study proposes a general reference model
and a reference architecture of implementation for the Industrial Internet Solution for
Industrial Equipment Asset Management (I3EAM). In addition, this study also develops a
set of performance indicators of I3EAM and a scheme selection method by using fuzzy the
DEMATEL-TOPSIS approach. A case study of its practice in an automated container termi-
nal project demonstrates the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed model, architecture,
and approach. In addition, the research results of this study have the potential to support
the construction of standard systems, and the planning and optimization of cross-domain
social platforms, etc.
The organization structure of this paper is arranged as follows. Section 2 conducts
a status review of the studies on Industrial Internet for EAM. Section 3 introduces the
main research methodology for a system analysis of I3EAM. In Sections 4 and 5, a general
reference model and a reference architecture of I3EAM in the social digitalization platform
are proposed and clarified, respectively. Section 6 introduces an effective method for
the evaluation and selection of the I3EAM schemes. In Section 7, a real industry case
study is conducted to validate the proposed model, architecture, and method. Finally, the
discussion, conclusions and future works of this study are given in Section 8.

2. Status Review for Industrial Internet and EAM

2.1. Related Concepts
2.1.1. Industrial Internet
In 2012, GE first introduced the concept of “Industrial Internet”. The Industrial
Internet was defined as the third wave in the development of the technological revolution.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 3 of 43

They defined the Industrial Internet as “the convergence of the global industrial system
with the power of advanced computing, analytics, low-cost sensing and new levels of
connectivity permitted by the internet”. Subsequently, GE, along with Cisco, Intel, AT&T,
IBM, and other companies, formed the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) [9]. The
IIC proposed the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) system and defined it as “a system
that connects and integrates industrial control systems with enterprise systems, business
processes and analytics” [12]. From the IIC’s reference architecture [12], the Industrial
Internet will serve multiple industrial sectors, covering the manufacturing, transportation,
energy, health care ones, and more. In China, in 2010, the Internet Society of China
proposed that they were “to take into account both consumer and production-oriented
Internet”. The Alliance of Industrial Internet (AII) regards the Industrial Internet as a new
industrial ecology, a key infrastructure, and a new application model. The AII proposed
that the core connotation of Industrial Internet is to realize the comprehensive connection
of the whole element, the whole industrial chain and the whole value chain through the
comprehensive interconnection of people, machines, and things. Industrial Internet System
Architecture 2.0 (China) [13], together with IIRA (USA) [12], RAMI4.0 (Germany) [14] and
IVRA (Japan) [15] have become the main reference architecture worldwide that are used to
guide the exploration and practice of Industrial Internet applications.

2.1.2. Equipment Asset Management (EAM)

Manufacturing companies are highly dependent on the proper operation of their equip-
ment assets to ensure good business operations [1,5,8]. The purpose of Equipment Asset
Management is to reduce the asset’s maintenance and repair costs, extend the asset’s life,
and improve the asset’s utilization [1]. Asset management is defined as “a set of strategic,
integrated and comprehensive processes (finance, management, engineering, operations and
maintenance) to obtain maximum lifecycle efficiency, utilization and return from physical
assets (production and operating equipment and structures)” [16]. An AM system can be
defined as “a system that plans and controls asset-related activities and their relationships to
ensure that asset performance meets the organization’s intended competitive strategy” [17]. In
practice, engineering asset management systems are increasingly focused on the full lifecycle
of the engineering assets [8,18–20]. The Asset Life Cycle Management (ALCM) approach was
proposed, which originated as a design philosophy and management principle in the U.S.
Department of Defense’s weapons and equipment acquisition process. The ALCM is used
to address the tension between reducing the lifecycle cost of the assets and improving the
asset’s utilization [19]. In general, the whole lifecycle of the equipment refers to the entire
process of designing and developing, producing, using, and safeguarding the equipment until
decommissioning it, and the material recovery stage [4,8,18,20]. El-Akruti et al. developed a
typical representation of the major asset-related activities in an organization, which provides
a comprehensive framework for fully defining the asset management system activities and
the relationships between the activities [1,17].

2.1.3. Smart Product Service System (SPSS)

Product service system (PSS) is a system of products, services, collaborative networks
of the stakeholders, and supporting infrastructure, which are jointly capable of creating
diverse functional and non-functional value economically and sustainably for the customers
(based on [21–23]). Tukker categorizes PSSs into three modes, i.e., product-oriented PSS,
use-oriented PSS, and result-oriented PSS [22]. After three industrial technology upgrades
have taken place: mechanization, electrification, and information technology, the era of
intelligence will soon come [24,25]. The products become Smart Connected Products (SCPs)
through advanced sensing and IoT technologies [25], such as smart machines. Based on the
concept of SCPs, Valencia et al. first proposed and defined the Smart Product Service System,
which is “a bundle of SCP and the generated smart services by leveraging SCP as the media
and tool, which is delivered to market for satisfying personalized needs of customers as
well as providing more environmental and social benefits” [26]. With a data and knowledge-
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 4 of 43

driven approach, the SPSS is able to provide more powerful and flexible capabilities than
a traditional PSS can, including smart sensing, smart connectivity, smart analytics, and
smart delivery [27,28]. In response to the trend of the convergence of smart machines and
digital platforms, the German Academy of Engineering has proposed the concept of “smart
services and its ecologization” as one of the key strategic directions of Industry 4.0 [29].
Zheng defined the Smart Product Service Ecosystem (SPSE), from the system of systems
perspective, whereby the SPSE consists of six components, including relationship, user
experience, smart technologies, marketing, business models, and connections [30].

2.1.4. Social Digitalization Platform (SDP)

A digitalization platform is often used to describe a centralized system to help enter-
prises to become digital and improve the way organizations deliver value to the customers
and remain competitive [31]. Technology architecture upgrades are making digitaliza-
tion platforms a standalone business model that helps application companies to achieve
business–IT alignment by providing IaaS (infrastructure as a service), PaaS (platform as
a service), and SaaS (software as a service) solutions [31,32]. Based on the definition of
platform leverage logic (PLL) defined by Tian et al. [33] and the study of the typology of
“platform” in the literature [34–36], we extended the leverage rationale of digitalization
platforms to include production rationale, transaction rationale, customization rationale,
and innovation rationale. The difference between the customization rationale and the
innovation rationale is whether the platform is licensed for data sharing and utilization
when one is providing digitalization solutions [32,37]. In this paper, we focus on those
large, cross-industry, third-party digitalization platforms, and we refer to them as social
digitalization platforms (SDPs) [38]. SDPs are third-party Industrial Internet platforms
that can develop and deliver enterprise digitalization solutions for different industries
or domains [32]. SDPs have stronger technical resource pools, actor connectivity, and
system integration capabilities [36,37,39], while the PLL of the SDPs can be defined as being
“focused on building platform ecosystem based on the innovation leverage rationale, bring-
ing together solution suppliers, developers and users around digital servitization”. For
example, the “cross-industry and cross-region” Industrial Internet platforms in China [40],
e.g., Siemens MindSphere, GE Predix, etc., are typical SDPs.

2.1.5. The Relationship between Industrial Internet, EAM, SPSS, and SDP
(1) The relationship between industrial internet and EAM
Industrial Internet technologies can support various digitalization needs, including
Equipment Asset Management (EAM) [41]. EAM is a typical application scenario of In-
dustrial Internet that is used by manufacturing companies to improve their organizational
performance by establishing synergy links with the reliability of the equipment assets, key
business, and stakeholders [5]. Digitalization solutions based on Industrial Internet can
facilitate enterprise integration, industry chain collaboration and value chain extension
around complex equipment objects and EAM-related activities [4,5,41,42]. In this paper,
“Industrial Internet solution for industrial equipment asset management” is the core com-
prehensive concept which is used to represent a digital service solution for the EAM needs
of a specific enterprise (corresponding to the “digitalization service instance” in Figure 1).
For convenience, it is referred to as “I3EAM”.
(2) The relationship between Industrial Internet, EAM, and SPSS
A Smart Product Service System (SPSS) is regarded as a bundle of the business model and
a delivery system of I3EAM [30,43]. Diverse SPSSs will be developed for specific EAM-related
application scenarios, such as remote maintenance [43], service network configuration [44],
and design optimization [42], etc. The SPSS will include smart equipment, EAM-related digital
services, stakeholder collaboration networks, and supporting infrastructure [23,45]. Multiple
SPSSs will gradually form a smart product service ecosystem and create organizational benefits
by generating complex relationships and synergies [46].
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 5 of 43
Machines 2022, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 5 of 44

Figure 1. The relationship between Industrial Internet, EAM, SPSS, and SDP.
Figure 1. The relationship between Industrial Internet, EAM, SPSS, and SDP.

(2) The
(3) The relationship
relationship between
between Industrial
Industrial Internet,
Internet, EAM,
EAM, and
SPSS,SPSS
and SDP
A Smart Product Service System (SPSS) is regarded as a bundle of the business model
The digitalization platform uses Industrial Internet technologies to help companies to
and a delivery system of I3EAM [30,43]. Diverse SPSSs will be developed for specific
realize their vision of digital servitization [36,47]. The Industrial Internet technology system
EAM-related application scenarios, such as remote maintenance [43], service network con-
provides an open architecture for social digital platforms to build their platform ecosystem [34],
figuration [44], and design optimization [42], etc. The SPSS will include smart equipment,
and it expands the organizational boundaries of platform-based enterprises [38]. Social
EAM-related digital services, stakeholder collaboration networks, and supporting infra-
digitalization platforms (SDPs) focus on building their own Industrial Internet technology
structure [23,45]. Multiple SPSSs will gradually form a smart product service ecosystem
platforms and provide customized EAM technical solutions and SPSSs for enterprises in
and create organizational benefits by generating complex relationships and synergies [46].
different industries through the use of business models such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. At
(3) same
the The time,
relationship between
SDPs will Industrial
utilize Internet,
interaction EAM, SPSS,
mechanisms (suchand SDP sharing), external
as data
innovation resource pools,
The digitalization stronguses
platform system integration
Industrial capabilities,
Internet and platform
technologies ecosystem
to help companies
orchestration andvision
to realize their governance to achieve
of digital better product/service
servitization innovation
[36,47]. The Industrial [32,37,46,47].
Internet technology
system
(4) Whatprovides
are thean open architecture
benefits of SDP for EAM?for social digital platforms to build their platform
ecosystem [34], and it expands the organizational boundaries of platform-based enter-
The value of SDPs is reflected in four aspects, (1) reducing the cost of enterprise
prises [38]. Social digitalization platforms (SDPs) focus on building their own Industrial
digitalization and reducing repetitive and inefficient R&D; (2) facilitating data sharing and
Internet technology platforms and provide customized EAM technical solutions and
utilization and enhancing cross-domain knowledge transfer to cope with a wide variety of
SPSSs for enterprises in different industries through the use of business models such as
complex equipment and EAM business scenarios; (3) accelerating manufacturing enterprise,
IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. At the same time, SDPs will utilize interaction mechanisms (such as
industry chain and value chain integration and collaboration on the basis of reliability of
data sharing), external innovation resource pools, strong system integration capabilities,
equipment assets and systems; (4) focusing on gathering solution providers, developers
and platform ecosystem orchestration and governance to achieve better product/service
and users to activate the innovation capability of the platform ecosystem.
innovation [32,37,46,47].
2.2.
(4) Status
Whatofare
Keythe
Technologies
benefits offor
SDPEAM
for EAM?
As
Theshown
valueinof Table
SDPs 1,is the advanced
reflected Industrial
in four aspects, Internet technologies
(1) reducing the cost offor EAM include
enterprise dig-
ten main aspects,
italization including
and reducing the key and
repetitive technologies
inefficientforR&D;
PHM(2) such as data acquisition,
facilitating data sharingsignal
and
processing, faultenhancing
utilization and diagnosis,cross-domain
health assessment, maintenance
knowledge transferdecision-making,
to cope with a wide andvariety
remote
monitoring,
of complex and co-maintenance.
equipment and EAMIn data acquisition,
business scenarios;sensing technology
(3) accelerating usually involves
manufacturing en-
13 types including the vibration, temperature, current, pressure, infrared, gas,
terprise, industry chain and value chain integration and collaboration on the basis of reli- sound, strain,
position,
ability oftorque,
equipmentimage, video,
assets and laser
and systems; (4)types, etc.onWireless
focusing gathering transmission, large-scale
solution providers, de-
low-cost
velopersaccess, andtointelligent
and users activate the edge acquisition
innovation are theofmain
capability technicalecosystem.
the platform difficulties of the
current data acquisition processes. For signal processing, its main work is to improve
2.2.signal-to-noise
the Status of Key Technologies
ratio through for EAM
conducting data pre-processing, thus facilitating the ex-
traction and highlighting of fault
As shown in Table 1, the advanced characteristics. Aroundtechnologies
Industrial Internet the vibration forsignal, a more
EAM include
comprehensive vibration feature parameter library has been formed, including
ten main aspects, including the key technologies for PHM such as data acquisition, signal the time
domain, frequency domain, and time-frequency domain features of the
processing, fault diagnosis, health assessment, maintenance decision-making, and remote vibration signal.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 6 of 43

The interpretable physical linkage between the signal processing and the feature extraction
is the key technology that is used to breaking through the machine condition monitoring.
For fault diagnosis, the solutions include historical data-based decision making, physical
model-based decision making, and data-driven decision making. On the one hand, the
threshold and physical model approaches are suitable for edge measurement time-sensitive
intelligent diagnostic operations. On the other hand, a wide variety of deep and shallow
neural networks are used for online fault diagnoses to explore more robust learning meth-
ods for nonlinear mapping relationships between the data and the anomalous patterns.
Thus, the physics, the data, and the expert experience are moving toward convergence,
together serving the accurate identification of an early fault diagnosis and generalized
migration across the devices. The core objectives in health assessment mainly include the
performance degradation assessment, health index (HI) construction, and residual useful
life (RUL) prediction of the machines. Monitoring the initial failure time and constructing
health indices by multi-sensing signal fusion are the main research directions. In addition,
the difficulty of obtaining full lifecycle data of complex equipment is a key challenge in
practice, and so scaling models and migration learning will be used in some application
scenarios. For maintenance decision making, fixed and empirical maintenance resource
management strategies need to be optimized in conjunction with new equipment condition
monitoring tools, such as optimized maintenance strategies based on equipment health
indices, reliability-based preventive maintenance strategies, etc. Other maintenance re-
source allocation strategies should also be considered, including the scientific spare parts
management, multi-skilled staffing, and overhaul of critical equipment allocation. For
remote monitoring and co-maintenance, new Industrial Internet technologies have been
applied to equipment operation and maintenance, such as cloud-edge collaboration, digital
twins, and AR, and VR.

Table 1. Literature review of advanced Industrial Internet technologies for EAM.

Category The State-of-the-Art Technologies Future Direction

• Sensing technologies (13 types usually): vibration, temperature,

current, pressure, infrared, gas, sound, strain, position, torque, Wireless transmission,
image, video, laser, etc., [48]; large-scale low-cost access,
Data acquisition
• Informative sensor identification technologies [49]; intelligent edge acquisition, and
• Multi-sensor fusion technologies [50,51]. multi-modal information fusion

• Feature extraction methods: many signal features have been

proposed, especially for the vibration signal for critical
structural components (such as gear and bearing) [52], Interpretable physical linkage
Signal processing including the time domain, frequency domain, and of signal processing and
time-frequency domain features [53,54]; feature extraction [56]
• Main technologies: including methods for data of redundancy
[55], sparsity [56,57], and deficiency [58].

• Main research flow: fault diagnosis based on the historical data,

fault diagnosis based on the physical model, and data-driven
fault diagnosis;
• Main technologies: the threshold and physical model Convergence of physics, data,
approaches for time-sensitive scenarios [56,57], and a wide and expert experience for
Fault diagnosis
variety of deep and shallow neural networks for more robust higher accuracy of pattern
learning and higher accuracy [59,60], including the CNN [61], recognition [60,66]
DNN [62], GAN [63], transfer learning [64], deep echo state
network [65], and GNN ones [66], etc.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 7 of 43

Table 1. Cont.

Category The State-of-the-Art Technologies Future Direction

• Main research flow: performance degradation assessment,

health index (HI) construction, and residual useful life (RUL)
prediction of machines;
• Main technologies: monitoring initial failure time [56] and Powerful public data sets [76],
constructing health indices by multi-sensing signal fusion cross-scenario adaptive learning
Health assessment [50,67], residual useful life (RUL) prediction based on physical methods, and health assessment
models [68], machine learning, deep learning (DBN [69], GRU with consideration of multiple
[70], TCN [71], and GNN [72], etc.), and fusion models [73], and maintenance influences [77]
transfer learning for RUL prediction with data from similar
objects [74], simulation [75], or scaling models.

• Main maintenance modes: condition-based maintenance,

preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance,
cognitive maintenance;
• Main maintenance decision-making problems: the main
research problems include ageing probabilistic risk/safety
assessment [78,79], cost estimation [80], maintenance policy Joint optimization for effective
selection and optimization [81–83], maintenance outsourcing equipment maintenance in the
Maintenance and leased manufacturing [84,85], spare parts management [86], integrated environment with
decision-making multi-skilled staffing and scheduling (resource dynamic multi-component systems [86],
allocation) [87], overhaul and retrofitting decision-making for multi-state systems, and
critical, complex equipment [88], etc.; multi-layer systems [78]
• Main methods and technologies: stochastic model, Markov
process modelling, Bayesian network, probabilistic relational
model, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods,
mathematical programming model, D-S theory, evolutionary
algorithms for NP-hard problems.

• Edge-cloud collaboration technologies: task offloading for

time-sensitive PHM scenarios [89], online PHM with
incremental learning [90];
• Digital-twin-based technologies: digital-twin-driven PHM Real-time synchronization,
approach [91], digital twin-driven cooperative awareness and multi-discipline, multi-scale,
interconnection framework for total factors of maintenance faithful mapping, and
Remote monitoring decision-making environment [6], DT-based equipment high-fidelity modelling for
and co-maintenance lifecycle management [4], DT-based maintenance cost joint complex equipment and
optimization [92]; maintenance decision-making
• AR/VR-based technologies: smart asset management functions environment [6]
(monitoring, recognition, positioning, classification, instruction,
prognosis, optimization, and their combinations) and
human–machine collaboration [93,94].

• Maintenance network design and planning [95];

Service network • Service network modelling [44];
setting • Robustness of maintenance service networks and adaptive
and optimization mechanisms [96].
Technology-driven business
model innovation for data
• Maintenance decision making oriented cross-organization sharing and utilization [97]
Knowledge sharing
and privacy knowledge sharing blockchain network [46];
preservation • Privacy-preserving PHM framework [97].
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 8 of 43

Table 1. Cont.

Category The State-of-the-Art Technologies Future Direction

Equipment
optimization • Reliability data for equipment lifecycle [42], equipment design
driven by [98,99], and others [100].
reliability data Joint optimization model and
algorithm design which is
• Uncertainty modelling and business optimization [102]; driven by various collaborative
• Mission reliability-driven functional healthy scenarios, missions and
Business optimization
state modelling [101]; utility goals [101]
driven by
reliability data • Social network of collaborating industrial assets [103];
• Collaborative prognostics in social asset networks [104].

As shown in Table 1, there are also some other important research streams in key
technologies, including service network setting and optimization, knowledge sharing
and privacy preservation, equipment optimization that is driven by reliability data, and
business optimization that is driven by reliability data.

2.3. Status of Industrial Application for EAM

In the terms of the application object, Industrial Internet technologies have been widely
used in numerous industrial fields and industrial equipment types, including the bearings and
gears of general rotating machinery [6,62,63,71,72], CNC machining centers [84,89], aircraft gas
turbine engines [51,105], aircraft turbofan engine [68,70,73], sea port equipment [77], complex
electromechanical systems [79], train bogies [80], and wind turbines [91], etc. Aiming at
the functional requirements of EAM, different industries and equipment objects show large
differences, including differences in data acquisition, signal processing, fault diagnosis, health
management, maintenance decisions, and collaborative operations. Therefore, it is essential to
customize the technical solution according to the actual needs.
In the term of the decision support system for PHM (Prognostics and Health Manage-
ment), the typical EAM technical solution suppliers include MindSphere, Predix, ROOT-
CLOUD, Thingswise iDOS, and so on. Currently, most Industrial Internet platforms have
established their EAM-related services and solutions. Table 2 provides a brief overview
of the typical Industrial Internet platforms, as well as their EAM technical solutions and
industrial applications. In addition, several scholars have provided systematic insights for
the development of decision support systems for PHM. Lee et al. proposed a PHM system
design and implementation methodology that includes the Streamline, Smart Processing,
Synchronize and See, Standardize and Sustain stages [2]. Meanwhile, the data, predictive
techniques, information management with visualization tools, standards, and closed-loop
management systems are considered to be key elements of the decision support systems
for equipment operation and maintenance [2]. Tao et al. introduced digital twin (DT)
technology for the PHM of complex equipment [91]. Based on five dimensions: physical
entities, virtual models, service activities, data, and connectivity, a componentized PHM
system has been designed and performed for unified management and on-demand use [91].
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 9 of 43

Table 2. A brief overview of typical Industrial Internet solutions and applications for EAM.

Name of the Industrial

Technical Framework and Its Characters Industrial Application
Internet Platform

• Cloud-based Open IoT Architecture: including three main

layers: MindConnect, MindCloud, and MindApps; Aerospace and defense,
• Edge-cloud collaboration, digital twin, and low-code automotive and transportation,
Siemens MindSphere industrial service development capabilities; electronics and semiconductors,
• Abundant common application components for Equipment heavy equipment, and
Asset Management. industrial machinery, etc.

• Asset Performance Management (APM) Software: featuring Energy, paper and pulp,
GE Predix Digital Twin analytics, work process automation and built-in chemical, mining and
GE industry expertise. metallurgy, and fertilizer, etc.

• Secured reliable computing and industrial IoT solutions (from Transportation and logistics,
chip to cloud); industrial robot, casting,
Microsoft Azure • Powerful machine learning capabilities, edge intelligence elevator, and food and drink
solutions, and software ecosystems. industry, etc.

• Powerful connectivity (supporting 1100+ common industrial

protocols and protocols customization); Industrial machinery, discrete
• Powerful modelling capacity (multi-level nested models for manufacturing, steel and
SANY ROOTCLOUD equipment: abstract thing model, thing model, basic elements non-ferrous metal, chemical,
of thing model, thing instances); and mining industry, etc.
• Mature business model of product service system.

• INDCIS + CMSS: Industrial Internet social platform + Cloud

manufacturing support systems; Aerospace, electronics,
CASICCloud INDICS • Supporting 21 types of scenarios of equipment data collection, machinery, and automotive
including machining, welding, and simulation, etc.; industry, etc.
• Safe, autonomous and controllable.

• A unified and loosely coupled system architecture and reuse Process manufacturing
of general technology components; industries including energy,
You-Ye Thingswise iDOS
• Powerful industrial mechanism modeling capacity. metallurgy, and material
processing, etc.

3. Research Methodology
3.1. Method of System Engineering Analysis
In this paper, each particular Industrial Internet Solution for Industrial Equipment
Asset Management (I3EAM) is considered as a complex artificial system that helps the
companies to achieve business–IT alignment in the EAM domain. The development of a
generic system model and customized implementation path for I3EAM is the research goal
of this paper. The I3EAM functions for a specific enterprise’s needs will be the functional
subset of the generic system model, while the social digitalization platform will provide
the Industrial Internet technology system support for the customized I3EAM. The system
engineering analysis method can deal with the complexity and integrity of the system,
involving the system’s elements, input, output, hierarchical structure, information inter-
action, and self-feedback mechanism, etc. To provide a multi-faceted and comprehensive
description of the I3EAM system, three dimensions is defined from the Industrial Internet
element (II), Industry (I), and EAM activities. The system engineering analysis was used to
explore the customization-oriented implementation path.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 10 of 43

The general steps of the systems engineering analysis approach include clearing the
questions, selecting the objectives, system synthesis, system analysis, scheme establishment,
making a decision, and putting it into practice. Complex systems can be built successfully
by using the system engineering processes of definition, planning, assessment, implementa-
tion, and feedback in accordance with the fictitious visions and actual needs. In this paper,
the seven specific steps of system engineering analysis are shown below.
(1) Step 1: Clear the questions (from trends and visions to demands)
EAM has become an important application scenario for Industrial Internet applications
and the digitalization of manufacturing companies. From a technical perspective, new
decision theories and technologies around Equipment Asset Management are constantly
being developed. However, there is still a lack of system framework models around EAM
in the existing literature, which hinders the precise matching of the academic research
results to the industrial application needs. In terms of the service scenarios, the value of
asset management extends to the full lifecycle of the equipment and business decisions
of the enterprise organization. Equipment interconnection, deeper multi-level system
integration, and business model innovation are promoting the creation of diverse scenarios
and product service systems. From an industrial application perspective, the demand for
EAM in SMEs is very active, but the backward digitalization level of the SMEs cannot
support the realization of the business–IT alignment. Common models and implementation
paths need to develop for supporting the customization of solution, and they will facilitate
the functional improvement and synergy of the Industrial Internet platforms.
(2) Step 2: Select the objectives (from demands to goals and measurement criteria)
The objective of this paper is to develop a generic reference model and implementation
architecture for the customization of I3EAM in social digitalization platforms by using the
technical architecture of Industrial Internet. Our goals are focused on exploring a systematic
technical solution that meets the current state and application needs of EAM, involving
break throughs in the connection of heterogeneous equipment, industrial cloud platform,
industrial big data engine, industrial modelling and simulation methods, information
models for collaborative, and service system planning and development.
(3) Step 3: System synthesis (from goals to investigations and plans in detail)
In order to achieve the selected objective above, we needed to investigate, review, and
refine the target system’s status quo and plan in a comprehensive manner. This process is
similar to the classical approach of Business Process Reengineering, where the investigation
of the current situation is considered as the process of acquiring the “as-is” of the system,
while the development of the detailed plan is considered as the process of acquiring the
“to-be” of the system. Our research path is presented as a combination of scientific research,
industrial practice, and a case study, and it consists of four phases.
1. The first stage was to summarize and analyze the existing literature on Industrial Internet-
based technologies and solutions for Equipment Asset Management (Sections 2.2 and 2.3)
and deduce the application status of I3EAM in different industries.
2. The second stage was to perform a detailed on-site investigation of the digitalization plat-
forms and enterprises in different industries and analyze the industrial demand of I3EAM
to obtain its constituent elements, functional modules, and their interaction relations.
3. The third stage was to plan and design the general model and the reference archi-
tecture of co-implementation path, which leverage the research results of the system
architecture of Industrial Internet. This stage is the most crucial stage, which is divided
into six sub-steps as follows:
• Sub-step 1: Planning for the resource and edge layer of I3EAM;
• Sub-step 2: Planning for the infrastructure and platform layer of I3EAM;
• Sub-step 3: Planning for the big data engine layer of I3EAM;
• Sub-step 4: Planning of the modelling and simulation layer of I3EAM;
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 11 of 43

• Sub-step 5: Planning of the information model for integration and collaboration

layer of I3EAM;
• Sub-step 6: Planning of the organization, business, and service layer of I3EAM.
4. The fourth stage was to select the representative enterprises in typical areas as a case
study and verify the reference model and detailed implementation steps of I3EAM, while
helping those enterprises with the digitalization solution to achieve a top-level design
and platform partner selection. Finally, the customized I3EAM usually can achieve
industrial profit from operation cost reductions or the expansion of service capacities.
(4) Step 4: System analysis (from designed system to performance metrics)
The planning and design work derives a sophisticated system and a methodology for
system implementation, including (1) a general reference model (Section 4) and (2) a refer-
ence architecture for the implementation path (Section 5). The system and methodology
provide a comprehensive, multi-perspective overview of and guidance on the implemen-
tation of I3EAM in different industries. In addition, a set of performance metrics were
established in order to evaluate the performance of the system implementation (Section 6.1).
(5) Step 5: Scheme collection (to collect and compare the I3EAM based on different SDPs
according to the needs of the special enterprise)
I3EAMs based on specific enterprise needs are the subsets of the function and instances
of the general system model. SDPs differ significantly in terms of technology, service,
ecosystem, and industrial application (Section 2.3). Therefore, there are multiple potential
I3EAM schemes that can meet the needs of the enterprises, but they differ in terms of
their performance, cost, etc. This step focused on collecting feasible solutions from these
potential digital service providers and evaluating the solutions according to the metrics
framework that is presented earlier in this paper.
(6) Step 6: Make a decision (to select an SDP partner for co-implementation with a group
decision-making process)
In the set of feasible solutions, the optimal feasible solution is selected based on the
special needs, decision preferences, and decision constraints of the enterprise. A group
decision-making process was performed for solution evaluation and partner selection, and as
well as this, the methods of fuzzy DEMATEL and TOPSIS were used to analyze the correlation
between the performance metrics and to find the ideal approximate solution (Section 6).
(7) Step 7: Put it into practice (to customize and co-implement the I3EAM, and to build feed-
back mechanisms between the industrial practices and the reference model/architecture)
According to the results of the above decision, the plan was implemented, including:
1. A reference model of I3EAM in the marine engineering equipment industry
(Section 7.1);
2. A reference architecture of implementation path for I3EAM in marine engineer-
ing (Section 7.2);
3. The selection of the SDP partner for I3EAM co-implementation in marine engi-
neering (Section 7.3).

3.2. The System Model for the Research of I3EAM

As shown in Figure 2, a system model is put forward, and it was used to conduct
research of I3EAM with the support of the social digitalization platform. According to the
method of system engineering above, the system model consists of the input, the system
environment, the system structure, the output, and the system function.
 Machines2022,
Machines 2022,10,
10,1137
x FOR PEER REVIEW 1213ofof4344

Figure 2. The system model for the research of I3EAM.

Figure 2. The system model for the research of I3EAM.

Firstly,as
Firstly, asthe
the input
input ofof the
the whole
whole system,
system,the theI3EAM
I3EAMunit unitisisproposed
proposed with
withthree di-
three
mensions, which are basic and independent,
dimensions, which are basic and independent, namely, the Industrial Internet element
the Industrial Internet element (II), (II),
Industry(I),
Industry (I), and
and the
the EAM-related activities
activities (EAM),
(EAM), respectively.
respectively.On Onthe
thebasis
basisof of
thethe
In-
dustrial Internet
Industrial Internetelements,
elements,I3EAM
I3EAM is designed
is designed for achieving
for achievingthe digitalization of theofEAM-
the digitalization the
related activities
EAM-related following
activities the special
following needsneeds
the special in different industries.
in different industries.
Secondly,the
Secondly, the system
system environment
environment I3EAM
I3EAM is the
is the digitalization
digitalization platform
platform because
because Indus-In-
dustrial Internet platform (IIP) provides the implementation foundation
trial Internet platform (IIP) provides the implementation foundation for I3EAM. Referring for I3EAM. Re-
toferring to Industrial
Industrial InternetInternet
System System Architecture
Architecture 2.0 [13],2.0the
[13], the hierarchy
hierarchy of theof the
IIP IIP includes
includes the
the resource
resource and edge
and edge layer,layer, the infrastructure
the infrastructure and platform
and platform layer,
layer, the bigthe
databigengine
data engine
layer,
the modelling
layer, and simulation
the modelling layer, layer,
and simulation the information modelmodel
the information layer,layer,
and the
andorganization,
the organiza-
business, and service
tion, business, layer. layer.
and service
Thirdly,
Thirdly,thetheI3EAM
I3EAMunit unitandandsystem
systemenvironment
environmentjointlyjointlyinduce
inducethethesystem
systemstructure
structure
ofofI3EAM, which is mediated by a digital twin-based metamodel
I3EAM, which is mediated by a digital twin-based metamodel for complex equipment. for complex equipment.
The
Thesystem
systemmetamodel
metamodelisiscomprised
comprisedofofthe thephysical
physicalentity,
entity,the
thevirtual
virtualobject,
object,the
thedigital
digital
twin
twindata,
data,the
theinteraction,
interaction,and andthetheservice.
service.Meanwhile,
Meanwhile,the thehierarchy
hierarchyofofthetheIndustrial
Industrial
 Internet platform embodies the system support for five types of elements (corresponding
to the system metamodel) and a unified cloud platform environment.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 13 of 43
Next, as the output of the whole system, an overall framework of I3EAM implemen-
tation is given in a detailed manner after the system synthesis. The framework involves
two parts, a generalInternet
reference model
platform for I3EAM
embodies and
the system a general
support reference
for five architecture
types of elements of
(corresponding
the implementationtopath for I3EAM.
the system metamodel) and a unified cloud platform environment.
Next, as
Lastly, the overall framework the output of theproduces
above whole system,theantargeted
overall framework
system offunction,
I3EAM implemen-
to
tation is given in a detailed manner after the system synthesis. The framework involves
achieve the growth of the capacity of the social digitalization platforms for the customiza-
two parts, a general reference model for I3EAM and a general reference architecture of the
tion of I3EAM and implementation
to accelerate path
the business–IT
for I3EAM. alignment for the special EAM-related
needs in various industries.Lastly,Additionally, basedabove
the overall framework on a produces
set of performance metrics,
the targeted system the sys-
function, to achieve
tem model can helpthe growth of
different the capacitytoofselect
enterprises the social
theirdigitalization
digitalizationplatforms for thepartner
platform customization
for of
I3EAM
the co-implementation of I3EAM.tand to accelerate the business–IT alignment for the special EAM-related needs
in various industries. Additionally, based on a set of performance metrics, the system
model can help different enterprises to select their digitalization platform partner for the
4. A general Reference Model of I3EAM
co-implementation in Social Digitalization Platform
of I3EAM.t
Based on the I3EAM unit, the general system model of I3EAM is defined in three
4. A General Reference Model of I3EAM in Social Digitalization Platform
dimensions: the Industrial Internet element (II), the Industry (I), and the EAM-related ac-
Based on the I3EAM unit, the general system model of I3EAM is defined in three
tivities (EAM). The dimensions:
three dimensions have Internet
the Industrial good independence
element (II), theand avoid
Industry (I),the
andambiguity
the EAM-related
of description. Meanwhile, the three
activities (EAM). dimensions
The three dimensions cover
have the
goodcore concernsand
independence of avoid
I3EAM, in-
the ambiguity
cluding the core content of the model (corresponding to the Industrial Internet element in-
of description. Meanwhile, the three dimensions cover the core concerns of I3EAM,
(II) dimension), the cluding the core content
object served by theofmodel
the model (corresponding to
(corresponding to the
theIndustrial
IndustryInternet element (II)
(I) dimen-
dimension), the object served by the model (corresponding to the Industry (I) dimension),
sion), and the scenario-based value of the model (corresponding to the EAM-related ac-
and the scenario-based value of the model (corresponding to the EAM-related activities
tivities (EAM) dimension). As shownAsinshown
(EAM) dimension). Figure 3, we 3,
in Figure made full full
we made useuseof of
thetheexisting archi-
existing architectural
tectural research results to refine
research and
results to elaborate
refine the three
and elaborate dimensions.
the three dimensions.

Figure 3. A general reference

Figure 3. model ofreference
A general I3EAM model
in social digitalization
of I3EAM platform. platform.
in social digitalization

(1) Dimension
(1) Dimension 1: Industrial 1: Industrial
Internet element Internet element (II) dimension
(II) dimension
The Industrial
The Industrial Internet elementInternet element (II)defines
(II) dimension dimension thedefines
system the metamodel
system metamodel
for for
I3EAM, including the physical entity, the virtual object, the digital twin data, the interac-
I3EAM, including the physical entity, the virtual object, the digital twin data, the interac-
tion, and the service. This dimension is a reference to the digital twin general model of
tion, and the service. This equipment
complex dimension is while
[91], a reference
we expandto on
thethedigital
details twin general model
of the metamodel. of of
The essence
complex equipmentdigitalization
[91], whileiswe expand
to create on the
parallel details
control of the
systems metamodel.
for specific The
systems, essence
including sensing,
of digitalization is to create parallel control systems for specific systems, including sensing,
modelling, and managing physical entities, information flows, and social relationships
[106]. The physical entity metamodel consists of the function/mission model, the func-
tional subsystems, the sensory systems, and the environmental systems. The virtual object
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 14 of 43

modelling, and managing physical entities, information flows, and social relationships [106].
The physical entity metamodel consists of the function/mission model, the functional sub-
systems, the sensory systems, and the environmental systems. The virtual object metamodel
consists of the geometry model, the physics model, the behavior model, and the rule model.
The digital twin data model includes the data from the physical entities, the virtual objects,
and the services, while the domain knowledge and fused data are also the parts of the data
model. The service metamodel comprises the function model, the context model, the I/O
model, the QoS (quality of service) model, and the state model, etc. Finally, the interaction
model builds the bridges among the different models. As described in Section 5, this
dimension helps the general reference model to establish a direct mapping to the Industrial
Internet architecture [13].
(2) Dimension 2: Industry (I) dimension
The research objective of this paper is to develop a general reference model that used is
across various industry sectors for I3EAM customization in social digitalization platforms.
The Industry (I) dimension includes, and is not restricted to, electric power equipment, avi-
ation and aerospace, marine engineering and ship, advanced rail transportation equipment,
agricultural machinery equipment, automobile, high-end CNC machine tools and robots,
biomedical equipment, and other industries.
(3) Dimension 3: EAM-related activities (EAM) dimension
Digitalization needs to rely on explicit business activities in order to generate a
scenario-based value. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive EAM-related activ-
ity model for the system structure analysis of I3EAM to support the modular design of
model and service functions. The EAM functional requirements of a specific enterprise are
a functional subset of the EAM-related activity model. The EAM-related activities (EAM)
dimension is divided into three types of activity, including the equipment asset lifecycle
management activities [8], the business collaboration activities [5,6], and the supporting
activities [1,17]. The equipment asset lifecycle management activities are further split into
the activities in the phases of R&D, manufacturing, using, safeguarding, decommissioning,
and material recovery [4,8,18,20,42]. Business collaboration activities are derived from the
hierarchy of system integration [5,14], including the station, the work center, the production
line, the enterprise, and the connected collaborative network [78,103,104]. According to the
literature [17], the supporting activities for EAM consist of various EAM-related planning
and control activities in the level of strategy, integration, and operation. The analysis of
the activity will help to effectively locate and identify the tangible and intangible system
elements with interpretable links to organizational performance and business goals [5].

5. An Implementation Path of I3EAM in Social Digitalization Platform

5.1. Overall Planning: A General Reference Architecture of Implementation Path
Six layers of I3EAM were derived from the metamodel, corresponding to the five
dimensions of the DT model and the generic cloud computing architecture. As illustrated
in Figure 4, each layer is considered to be necessary and harmonious, serving to provide
common solutions for building digital twins and parallel management systems for complex
equipment. The industrial edge layer enables the sensing and control of the physical entities
of complex equipment and their environments. The industrial cloud platform will facilitate
the flexible matching of heterogeneous computing resources and needs, as well as establish
connectivity between the edge devices and the industrial services. Industrial big data and
prior knowledge will support the creation of “life-like virtual objects or digital models” of
complex engineering systems. Meanwhile, complex coupling optimization mechanisms
for the equipment and its environment will be better identified and presented in the cycle
of data collection, modeling, simulation, and collaborative interaction. In the context of
evolving business goals and organizational performance, data-driven services will support
the generation of better planning and control strategies and solutions, dynamically. Each
layer will be clarified in detail in Section 5.2 through Section 5.6.
10, x FOR Machines 2022, 10, 1137
PEER REVIEW 16 of 44 15 of 43

Figure 4. A general reference architecture of the implementation path for I3EAM in SPD.
Figure 4. A general reference architecture of the implementation path for I3EAM in SPD.

5.2. Step 1: Planning

5.2.and
StepDesigning of and
1: Planning Industrial Resource
Designing and Edge
of Industrial Layer
Resource and Edge Layer
As shown in Figure As shown in Figure
5, industrial 5, industrial
equipment equipment
usually usually
consists consists
of three main of categories
three main categories
based on predefined functions or missions: product equipment, production equipment,equipment,
based on predefined functions or missions: product equipment, production
and non-production equipment. The equipment needs to be maintained in a reasonable
and non-production equipment. The equipment needs to be maintained in a reasonable
interval of physical state during its operation to ensure the reliability of mission execution.
interval of physical state during its operation to ensure the reliability of mission execution.
The monitoring of the equipment status needs to be based on an understanding of the func-
The monitoring of the subsystems
tional equipmentand status needs toarrangement
a reasonable be based onofan understanding
sensing of theFor specific
control schemes.
functional subsystems and a reasonable arrangement of sensing control schemes. For spe-
scenarios, non-physical signals as well as time-sensitive requirements are incorporated into
cific scenarios, non-physical
edge solutions.signals
Thereasarewell
tensas
of time-sensitive requirements
thousands of industrial buses orare incorpo-
protocols with private
rated into edge solutions. There
controllers are tens ofdevices
for automation thousands of the
around industrial buses
world, with lessorthan
protocols with
15% of the general pur-
private controllers for automation devices around the world, with less than 15% of the should
pose PLCs and more than 60% of the “dumb” devices. Therefore, the edge solutions
provideand
general purpose PLCs “plug-and-play”
more than 60% capabilities
of the with technology
“dumb” options
devices. for sensing
Therefore, the and
edgenetworking.
The industrial edge layer includes low-cost sensor solutions for different system levels
solutions should provide “plug-and-play” capabilities with technology options for sens-
ing and networking. The industrial edge layer includes low-cost sensor solutions for dif-
ferent system levels and signal types, as well as smart gateways that support a variety of
industrial protocols. The industrial protocols include three categories: (1) General com-
munication protocols: 4G, 5G, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, NB-IoT, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wired Network,
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 16 of 43

and signal types, as well as smart gateways that support a variety of industrial protocols.
The industrial protocols include three categories: (1) General communication protocols:
4G, 5G, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, NB-IoT, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wired Network, etc.; (2) Mainstream
Machines 2022, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 17 of 44
industrial protocols: OPC-UA, IEC10x, IEC61850, Modbus, LT645, DNP3.0, CDT, Open
Protocol, MQTT, CoAP, DataExchange, etc.; (3) Other specialized or custom protocols. In
addition, edge computing solutions are introduced in the cloud-edge collaboration solution
custom protocols. In addition, edge computing solutions are introduced in the cloud-edge
of the industrial cloud platform in the next section.
collaboration solution of the industrial cloud platform in the next section.

Figure 5. Industrial resource and edge layer.

Figure 5. Industrial resource and edge layer.

Theindustrial
The industrialcloud cloudplatform
platformsystem
systemprovides
providesall allofofthe
thenecessary
necessarycomputer
computersystem
system
resources for I3EAM. Due to the scalability of cloud-based computing resources, plat-
resources for I3EAM. Due to the scalability of cloud-based computing resources, the the
form that
platform is here
that is hereis not a single
is not a singlesoftware
software system.
system. TheThe industrial
industrialcloud
cloud platform
platform may
may in-
volve multiple
involve multiple subjects
subjects and and multiple layers of
multiple layers of computer
computer resources,
resources,including
includingthe theedge
edge
computingsystems,
computing systems,the theenterprises’
enterprises’local
localOT/IT
OT/ITsystems,
systems,the theenterprise-level
enterprise-levelIndustrial
Industrial
Internetplatforms,
Internet platforms,and andthethecross-industry
cross-industrythird-party
third-partyserviceserviceproviders.
providers.The Theindustrial
industrial
cloudplatform
cloud platformconsists
consistsofofa acloud-edge
cloud-edgecollaboration
collaborationlayer,layer,an anIaaS
IaaS(Infrastructure
(Infrastructureasasa a
service)layer,
service) layer,a aPaaS
PaaS(Platform
(Platformasasaaservice)
service)layer,
layer,and
andaaSaaS SaaS(Software
(Softwareas asaaservice)
service)layer.
layer.
Thecloud-edge
The cloud-edgecollaboration
collaborationlayer
layerwill
willutilize
utilizethe
thetime-sensitive
time-sensitiveresponse
responsecapability
capability
ofofthe
theedge
edgesideside (e.g.,
(e.g., real-time
real-time equipment
equipment monitoring)
monitoring) andand the the powerful
powerful back-end
back-end com-
comput-
puting
ing (e.g., (e.g., big analysis),
big data data analysis), and unified
and unified configuration
configuration capabilitycapability (e.g., computer
(e.g., computer resource re-
source allocation)
allocation) is measured is measured by the
by the cloud cloud platform.
platform. The coreThe core of cloud-edge
of cloud-edge collaboration
collaboration lies in
selecting reasonable
lies in selecting distributed
reasonable resource and
distributed function
resource andconfigurations according to
function configurations the appli-to
according
cation scenarios and establishing a collaborative link among the cloud,
the application scenarios and establishing a collaborative link among the cloud, edge, edge, and end points.
and
The
endcloud-edge
points. Thecollaboration includes resource
cloud-edge collaboration collaboration,
includes service collaboration,
resource collaboration, and
service collab-
application
oration, and collaboration.
applicationThrough the abstraction
collaboration. Through of hardware
the abstractionresources such as underly-
of hardware resources
ing devices,
such it realizesdevices,
as underlying the convenient deployment,
it realizes the convenientcommunication,
deployment, operation,
communication,and whole
oper-
ation, and whole lifecycle management of the infrastructure resources, service compo-
nents, and application software on both sides of the cloud and the edge. As shown in
Figure 6, the cloud-edge collaboration layer includes edge data collection strategies and
edge computing schema.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 17 of 43

lifecycle management of the infrastructure resources, service components, and application

software
Machines 2022, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW on both sides of the cloud and the edge. As shown in Figure 6, the cloud-edge
18 of 44
collaboration layer includes edge data collection strategies and edge computing schema.

Figure 6. Industrial cloud platform layer.

Figure 6. Industrial cloud platform layer.

5.3.Step
5.3. Step2:2:Planning
Planningand
andDesigning
DesigningofofIndustrial
IndustrialCloud
CloudPlatform
PlatformLayer
Layer
TheIaaS
The IaaSlayer
layerprovides
providesinfrastructure
infrastructureinvolving
involvingcomputing,
computing,storage,
storage,networking,
networking,
andvirtualization.
and virtualization.The ThePaaS
PaaSlayer
layeroffers
offersthethetechnical
technicalarchitecture
architectureofofthe
theindustrial
industrialcloud
cloud
platform
platformand andthethe
common
common capabilities for platform
capabilities for platformresource deployment
resource and management,
deployment and manage-
and it supports
ment, the integration
and it supports of industrial
the integration big databig
of industrial systems and microservice
data systems component
and microservice com-
libraries. To establish
ponent libraries. the digitalthe
To establish platform for the group-type
digital platform company company
for the group-type or cross-industry
or cross-
service
industryprovider,
servicea provider,
strong PaaS layer isPaaS
a strong required
layertoisprovide
required infrastructure
to provide services for wider
infrastructure ser-
access to the edge devices and industrial services. A flexible service-oriented
vices for wider access to the edge devices and industrial services. A flexible service-ori- technology
architecture is created
ented technology by combining
architecture containers
is created and microservices.
by combining containersSimultaneously,
and microservices.in order
Sim-
toultaneously,
better handle inthe diverse
order computer
to better handlesystem resources
the diverse and microservice
computer requirements,
system resources the
and micro-
platform offers a number
service requirements, ofplatform
the commonoffersservices such as of
a number resource
common management, environment
services such as resource
management,
management,configuration
environmentmanagement,
management,load balancing,management,
configuration and an API gateway. In a larger
load balancing, and
range of application scenarios, service grids are used to control the service
an API gateway. In a larger range of application scenarios, service grids are used to controlcommunication
crisis that is caused
the service by the increased
communication business
crisis that complexity.
is caused Finally, as business
by the increased describedcomplexity.
subsequently Fi-
nally, as described subsequently in Sections 5.2 and 5.7, the SaaS components or industrial
APPs will create direct value for business scenarios and users. The industrial cloud plat-
form will promote the formation of industrial APP ecosystems with the toolchain of in-
dustrial APP development and operation and business model innovation.
 Machines 2022, 10, 1137 18 of 43

10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 19 of 44

in Sections 5.2 and 5.7, the SaaS components or industrial APPs will create direct value for
business scenarios and users. The industrial cloud platform will promote the formation of
industrial
5.4. Step 3: Planning APP ecosystems
and Designing with Big
of Industrial the toolchain of industrial
Data Engine Layer APP development and operation
and business model innovation.
The remote sensing data of equipment through I3EAM has the characteristics of
multi-source, massive and3: heterogeneous.
5.4. Step On the
Planning and Designing of one hand,Big
Industrial the
Dataplatform must construct
Engine Layer
a data management and Thegovernance
remote sensingsystem, toequipment
data of realize thethrough
effective and real-time
I3EAM manage- of multi-
has the characteristics
ment of the equipment
source, massive and heterogeneous. On the one hand, the platform mustvisible
data and to provide unified, complete, standardized, and construct a data
data resources formanagement
various dataand application
governance projects
system,and data analysts.
to realize On and
the effective the other hand,
real-time management
the platform mustofprovide rich data
the equipment service
data and tofunctions to improve
provide unified, the efficiency
complete, of the
standardized, andus-
visible data
ers’ access to data and the level of the data that they are using. As illustrated in Figure 7, hand, the
resources for various data application projects and data analysts. On the other
the industrial bigplatform must provide
data system provides rich data
data service functions
sources, to improvedata
edge connections, the efficiency of the users’
collection,
access to data and the level of the data that they are using. As illustrated in Figure 7, the
data processing, data services, and portals. Different data sources should use appropriate
industrial big data system provides data sources, edge connections, data collection, data
edge access solutions, data collection strategies, and data quality standards in accordance
processing, data services, and portals. Different data sources should use appropriate edge
with the data volume, data characteristics,
access solutions, and
data collection real-time
strategies, andrequirements. Different
data quality standards data-
in accordance with
bases are interconnected through the middleware, and ETL (Extract–Transform–Load)
the data volume, data characteristics, and real-time requirements. Different databases are
formation is developed to support
interconnected throughdata
the processing
middleware, and integration.
and ETL Based on micro-
(Extract–Transform–Load) formation is
services and industrial APPs,
developed the platform
to support should provide
data processing the users
and integration. with
Based on self-service
microservicesand
and industrial
APPs, theand
convenient data services platform should
support theprovide the users with
users’ secondary self-service and
development convenient
activities data services
based
and support the users’ secondary development activities based on the data resources.
on the data resources.

Figure 7. Industrial big data government and service layer.

Figure 7. Industrial big data government and service layer.

5.5.and
5.5. Step 4: Planning StepDesigning
4: Planning
of and Designing
Industrial of Industrial
Modeling Modeling andLayer
and Simulation Simulation Layer
Constructing
Constructing a digital twin anda digital twin
parallel and parallel management
management system for
system for complex complex equipment
equipment
requires data insights and prior knowledge. The mechanistic models and commoncommon
requires data insights and prior knowledge. The mechanistic models and meth- methods
that have already been developed in the PHM field serve as the foundation for model
ods that have already been developed in the PHM field serve as the foundation for model
encapsulation and the development of microservice libraries. As shown in Figure 8,
I3EAM should build modeling and simulation systems related to Equipment Asset Man-
agement (EAM) in the Industrial Internet platform environment to reduce the time and
cost of building the models for complex equipment with different properties and behav-
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 19 of 43

encapsulation and the development of microservice libraries. As shown in Figure 8, I3EAM

should build modeling and simulation systems related to Equipment Asset Management
(EAM) in the Industrial Internet platform environment to reduce the time and 20
Machines 2022, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW cost of
of 44
building the models for complex equipment with different properties and behaviors. The
proposed modeling layer contains five types of analytical models: the descriptive, diagnos-
tic, predictive, prescriptive, and cognitive analysis models. From the functional perspective
functional perspective of the models, I3EAM needs to consider other decision issues re-
of the models, I3EAM needs to consider other decision issues related to human factors and
lated to human factors and reliability of integrated systems in addition to the models in
reliability of integrated systems in addition to the models in the PHM domain.
the PHM domain.

Figure 8. Industrial modeling and simulation layer.

Figure 8. Industrial modeling and simulation layer.

Simulationhas
Simulation hasgreat
greatpotential
potential for
for application
application in
in the
the area
area of
of equipment
equipmentoperation
operationand
and
maintenance, but it is limited by the cost of constructing high-fidelity digital
maintenance, but it is limited by the cost of constructing high-fidelity digital models models
andand
the
the acquisition
acquisition offault
of rare rare data.
fault Digital
data. Digital twin technology
twin technology is facilitating
is facilitating the convergence
the convergence of
of physical
physical models, data models, and prior knowledge. The interaction between
models, data models, and prior knowledge. The interaction between the physical entities the physical
entities
and and the
the virtual virtualwill
mirrors mirrors will up
be rolled be rolled up and optimized
and optimized through generalized
through generalized au-
autoregressive
toregressive
models, models,
and this and this will
will improve improve the effectiveness
the effectiveness of equipmentofoperation
equipment andoperation and
maintenance
maintenance decisions based on collaborative computing and consistency checks. The
I3EAM simulation layer contains the equipment configuration, the physical simulation,
the hybrid simulation, the digital twin-based simulation, and the CPSS-based simulation.
Social factors such as the business’ processes, the human factors, and the organization,
likewise, need to be defined by the software and integrated with the physical dimension
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 20 of 43

decisions based on collaborative computing and consistency checks. The I3EAM simulation
layer contains the equipment configuration, the physical simulation, the hybrid simulation,
the digital twin-based simulation, and the CPSS-based simulation. Social factors such as the
business’ processes, the human factors, and the organization, likewise, need to be defined
by the software and integrated with the physical dimension of the model. For example, the
impact of the manual operation of maintenance on the condition and residual useful life (RUL)
of the equipment is ignored in most of the equipment PHM work.

5.6. Step 5: Planning and Designing of Industrial Information Model Layer

Here is an example from the steel industry to illustrate the objective and function of the
industrial information model and collaboration layer. The inability to cooperatively optimize
the equipment and accessories is caused by the lack of equipment operation and maintenance
(O and M) data for the key steel production equipment that is owned by the steel mill
(the equipment owner) and the outsourced equipment O and M vendors. The equipment
manufacturers and lubricant companies want to obtain these data, but the equipment owners
lack the motivation to collect and share it. Likewise, due to the intellectual property, it might
be challenging to exchange the equipment design data and lubricant formulation data with
the manufacturers or other stakeholders to improve the equipment maintenance models. The
main purpose of the information model layer is to build safe and interoperative industrial
information integration models, technology solutions, and collaborative systems in order
to lower the barriers of knowledge transfer and collaboration to meet the challenges of new
equipment, conditions, and scenarios. Federal learning and the blockchain are considered to
be potential integration technology directions. In addition, information model mapping for
heterogeneous devices and information systems in the cloud-edge collaboration framework
is necessary. For example, the OPC-UA’s information modeling framework supports the
integration of information models and protocols, allowing the direct modeling and transfer of
semantic data through user-specified data formats. Based on the correspondence between the
ontology model and the information model, the information is obtained from the device/edge
node by semantic reasoning, and then, the device information model is exposed to the
network through the OPC-UA server.

5.7. Step 6: Planning and Designing of Industrial Organization, Business, and Service Layer
Equipment assets are particularly important in industrial companies, and they are
closely linked to production activities and profit generation. Industrial Internet technologies
support Equipment Asset Management solutions for an increasing number of industrial
enterprises. As shown in Figure 9, the service logic of I3EAM based on the Industrial
Internet platform is first expressed using a simple concept diagram. The equipment
reliability is associated with business goals and organizational performance in different
dimensions and at different levels. Therefore, the service function requirements and
the development of industrial APPs will be closely focused on the planning and control
activities related to Equipment Asset Management. In the previous studies of decision
support systems, the meta-model of service scenarios is missing or one-sided. In this
paper, a service catalogue is given to cover the planning and control activities related to
Equipment Asset Management at the strategic, integration, and operational levels based
on the proposed AM framework in the literature [17]. Meanwhile, the EAM APP catalog
of I3EAM is expected to be consistent with the service catalogue to provide a systematic
solution for Equipment Asset Management in industrial enterprises.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 21 of 43
Machines 2022, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 22 of 44

Figure 9. Industrial organization, business, and service layer.

Figure 9. Industrial organization, business, and service layer.

6. Evaluation
Evaluation and
and Selection
Selectionof ofI3EAM
I3EAMSchemes
SchemesBased
Basedon
onFuzzy
FuzzyDEMATEL-TOPSIS
DEMATEL-TOPSIS
The Establishment
6.1. The Establishment of
of Performance
PerformanceMetric
MetricSet
Setfor
forI3EAM
I3EAMScheme
Scheme
The core
The core objective
objective of
of this
thispaper
paperisisto
tohelp
helpenterprises
enterprisestotocustomize
customizeI3EAM
I3EAMusingusingsocial
social
digital platforms. The
The generic
generic model
modeland
andreference
referencearchitecture
architectureprovide
provide effective guidance
effective guid-
for identifying
ance the requirements
for identifying of I3EAM
the requirements and planning
of I3EAM the implementation
and planning path ofpath
the implementation I3EAM.
of
However,
I3EAM. there may
However, be may
there multiple social digitalization
be multiple platforms
social digitalization to choose
platforms from around
to choose from
the specific
around needs ofneeds
the specific enterprises, and theand
of enterprises, I3EAM solutions
the I3EAM that they
solutions offer
that theyhave
offervarious
have
characteristics. Therefore, based on the systematic synthesis, a set of performance
various characteristics. Therefore, based on the systematic synthesis, a set of performance metrics
metrics need to be constructed to help the enterprises to evaluate different solutions
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 22 of 43

need to be constructed to help the enterprises to evaluate different solutions according to

their preferences. The company will finally obtain an optimal solution, and the selected
social digital platform will become the digital partner of the company to implement I3EAM
together. The I3EAM evaluation system is crucial for EAM business–IT alignment for all of
the types of enterprises, but it has not yet been studied and proposed.
The construction of I3EAM is a complex system-engineering project. The generic
model and reference architecture focus on the identification of functional instances and
architectural design, but they cannot completely reflect the performance of I3EAM in terms
of its feasibility, capability, and ecology. Establishing an evaluation system for I3EAM
will help identify the weak connections between the requirements, the solutions, and the
platform partners more accurately and comprehensively, and increase the value created
by the joint implementation of I3EAM. When designing and building the performance
metric set for an I3EAM scheme, multiple factors and platform leverage logics need to be
taken into account, such as the scheme’s feasibility, the requirement coverage level, the
technical capability, the application benefits, and the potential value in the medium and
long term. Based on the research of the system model and enterprise requirements, this
study proposes a performance metric assessment framework for the I3EAM scheme and
its corresponding social digitalization platform. The framework was designed from three
dimensions, including the basic platform service attribute, the technical capacity for I3EAM,
and the value of the platform application and ecology synergy, as well as fifteen specific
second grade indicators which are presented, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Performance metric set for I3EAM scheme.

First-Grade Second-Grade
Explanation of the Indicator
Indicator Indicator

Whether the platform constructor has the necessary industry technology and
IT technology capabilities;
The number of professionals engaged in the platform
B1: Talent guarantee
construction and operation;
The coverage of the professionals’ fields (knowledge and skills for ICT, specific
Basic industrial fields, and platform ecology construction &and operation).
platform
service Whether a management system of information security has been built, and
attribute whether the hidden dangers can be controlled;
(B) B2: System Whether effective countermeasures of information security
Security guarantee have been constructed;
The adoption of technologies for networking security, data security, and
industrial access security, etc.

B3: Cost of
The level of the total cost for the implementation of I3EAM.
digitalization service

The comprehensive performance of IT infrastructure resources (including

T1: IT resource
computing, storage, and network), and the capabilities of cloud-based
management capability
management and scheduling of IT resources.

The capability of connection of heterogenous equipment asset resources

T2: Industrial equipment
Technical (including type, sensing scheme, gateway, protocol, and cloud-edge
adaptation capability
capability collaboration scheme).
for I3EAM T3: Industrial big data The comprehensive performance of industrial big data engine (including data
(T) engine performance acquisition, data processing, and data service and portal).

T4: Industrial modeling and The capability of modeling and simulation for Equipment Asset Management
simulation service (including intelligent algorithms, industrial mechanism models, industrial
capability domain knowledge, digital twins schemes, and human–machine interactions).
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 23 of 43

Table 3. Cont.

First-Grade Second-Grade
Explanation of the Indicator
Indicator Indicator

The application level of microservice technical architecture, including

T5: Microservice development capability maturity for microservice development and governance,
and government capability the number and type of the EAM-related microservice, and the coverage of the
needs of I3EAM.

The potential for custom development, secondary development and ongoing

T6: Development development of the microservices and industrial APPs (including cost of
environment supporting learning, low-code scheme, the friendliness level of user interfaces, and
development toolchain).

T7: Scheme
The comprehensive performance of the technical architecture for I3EAM,
technical
namely the combination and integration scheme of the platform basic services,
architecture
EAM-related microservices and industrial APPs.
performance

T8: System
The level of compatibility and interoperability with enterprise information
integration and
systems, the degree of standardization of information models, and the
collaboration
capability of middleware services.
capability

The platform scale and activity, including the user scale, user activity,
A1: Platform scale and activity developer scale, developer activity, service provider scale, service provider
category, and service provider capability level.
Value of
platform The application level of the platform (including the number and type of
application A2: Platform application value long-term served industries, and the number and type of long-term served
and industrial scenarios related to EAM).
ecology
synergy A3: Open and Whether the platform has the mechanisms and tools for data and knowledge
(A) sharing mechanism sharing and utilization across the various users and fields.

The ecology synergy effect of the platform (including the synergy

A4: Platform ecology value effect in group company, global company, value chain, industry chain,
and platform ecosystem).

The dimension of the basic platform service attribute includes three aspects, namely,
(1) the talent guarantee, (2) the system security guarantee, and (3) the cost of the digital-
ization service, which are used in order to evaluate the feasibility of the implementation
scheme and the basic service capability of the digitalization platform. The dimension of the
technical capability for I3EAM is comprised of eight aspects, including (1) the IT resource
management capability, (2) the industrial equipment adaptation capability, (3) the industrial
big data engine capability, (4) the industrial modeling and simulation service capability,
(5) the microservice development and government capability, (6) the development environ-
ment supporting, (7) the scheme technical architecture performance, and (8) the system
integration and collaboration capability. The performance of technical capability is the core
part of the assessment metric, and its objective is to provide a quantitative evaluation of
I3EAM on the basis of the previously mentioned general model and reference architecture.
The dimension of value of platform application and ecology synergy involves four aspects,
namely, (1) the platform scale and activity, (2) the platform application value, (3) the open
and sharing mechanism, and (4) the platform ecology value. This dimension is proposed for
assessing the application benefits and potential value of the chosen digitalization platform
in the medium-to-long term.
In addition, for the sake of conciseness in the subsequent expressions, we assigned
tags to each indicator, i.e., B1–B3 for the dimension of a basic platform service attribute,
T1–T8 for the dimension of a technical capability for I3EAM, and A1–A4 for the dimension
of a value of platform application and ecology synergy.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 24 of 43

6.2. The Approach to Evaluate and Select I3EAM Schemes Based on Different SDPs
In this section, a hybrid approach combining fuzzy DEMATEL and fuzzy TOPSIS
is proposed for evaluating the I3EAM schemes based on different social digitalization
platforms and the selection of the best scheme and co-implementation partner (the SDP
which provides the best I3EAM scheme). The computational steps of our hybrid approach
are clarified as follows:
(1) Step 1. Establishing fuzzy number and determining the linguistic variables
According to the fuzzy set theory, it is indicated that the elements have a degree
of membership in a fuzzy set. A triangular fuzzy number (TFN) is defined as a fuzzy
number whose membership function f ea ( x ) : R → [0, 1] is equal to following Equation (1).
a = (l, m, u), where l ≤ m ≤ u.
Additionally, the TFN can be denoted as e

 0,
 x < l or x >u
x −l
f ea ( x ) = m−l , l≤x≤m (1)

 u− x
u−m , m≤x≤u

In order to design the questionnaire for collecting the decision makers’ judgements, the
linguistic terms and its variables were defined. In this paper, the computational technique
is based on the following membership function of linguistic scale which has been defined
in the literature [107] (as shown in Table 4). We used this kind of expression to evaluate
the dependent influence between each two performance indicators, which are given in
Section 6.1. The linguistic terms include: “No influence (N)”, ”Very low influence (VL)”,
“Low influence (L)”, “High influence (H)”, “Very high influence (VH)”, and “Extremely
high influence (EH)”, as well as their corresponding TFNs separately, which are (0,0,0),
(0.5,0.5,1), (0.5,1,1.5), (1.5,2,2.5), (2.5,3,3.5), and (3.5,4,4), respectively.
(2) Step 2. Constructing dependence matrices of performance indicators and group fuzzy
initial direct-relation matrix

Table 4. Membership function of linguistic scale.

Fuzzy Number Linguistic (Abbreviation) Scale of Fuzzy Number

4 Extremely high influence (EH) (3.5,4,4)

3 Very high influence (VH) (2.5,3,3.5)
2 High influence (H) (1.5,2,2.5)
1 Low influence (L) (0.5,1,1.5)
0.5 Very low influence (VL) (0.5,0.5,1)
0 No influence (N) (0,0,0)

According to the previous research and industry investigations, we believe that the
interaction between the performance indicators will produce a positive influence on the
decision making about the importance of them (the weight of each indicator). This study used
the method of group fuzzy DEMATEL for revealing the interaction relationships between
every two indicator sets. For the I3EAM, such a complex system, the method is applicable to
analyze and segment complex factors by group decision in an uncertain environment.
The experts were invited to make pair-wise comparisons in terms of crisp scores for
the performance indicator interactions (No influence (N) = 0, Very low influence (VL) = 0.5,
Low influence (L) = 1, High influence (H) = 2, Very high influence (VH) = 3, and Extremely
high influence (EH) = 4). The experts were from multiple disciplines, including CIOs,
procurement managers, project managers, technical staff, and financial experts. Based on
the scoring system, the group judgements on the relationships between n performance
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 25 of 43

indicators were collected from q decision-makers. The kth decision maker’s initial direct-
relation matrix Mk is as follows:
k k
 
0 s12 · · · s1n
 sk k
· · · s2n
 21 0


Mk =   .. .. .. ..  k = 1, 2, . . . , q (2)
 . . . . 

skn1 skn2 ··· 0

where sijk is the kth decision maker’s judgement with crisp score for the ith I3EAM perfor-
mance indicator’s influence on the jth indicator, q is the number of experts, and n is the
number of I3EAM performance indicators.
Then, through the use of Formula (1) and the membership function in Table 4, the
Mk can be fuzzified, and it was converted to a triangular fuzzy direct-relation matrix M e k.
The elements of Mk are triangular fuzzy numbers e
e k k k k
sij = (lij , mij , uij ). Thus, the group fuzzy
initial direct-relation matrix S can be obtained as follows:
e
 
0̂ ŝ12 · · · ŝ1n
 ŝ
 21 0̂ · · · ŝ2n  
S= . .
e  .. ..  (3)
 .. .. . . 
ŝn1 ŝn2 ··· 0̂
n o n o
q q
where ŝij = (lˆij , m̂ij , ûij ), lˆij = lij1 , . . . , lijk . . . , lij , m̂ij = m1ij , . . . , mijk . . . , mij , and ûij =
n o
q
u1ij , . . . , uijk . . . , uij . Then, by calculating the average value of each element in ŝij , the
group fuzzy direct-relation matrix SeA , which was aggregated, could be obtained.
(3) Step 3. Acquiring the fuzzy normalized direct-relation matrix and fuzzy total-relation
matrix
After fA=
the process of aggregation, the fuzzy normalized direct-relation matrix NS
h i
ˆ ijA
ns can be acquired through dividing each element in SeA by a crisp number NF (u).
n×n
The NF (u) can be calculated by using Equation (4). Through Equationh (5), ithe matrix SeA
f A = ns
was converted to the fuzzy normalized direct-relation matrix NS ˆA , which is ij n×n
A
denoted as Equation (6). The element in NS
f is denoted as Equation (7).

n
NF (u) = max ∑ uijA (4)
j =1

1 q
where uijA = q ∑k=1 uijk .
ŝijA ŝijA
ˆ ijA =
ns = (5)
NF (u) max ∑nj=1 uijA
q q q
where ŝijA = (lijA , mijA , uijA ) = ( 1q ∑k=1 lijk , 1q ∑k=1 mijk , 1q ∑k=1 uijk ).
A A
 
0̂ nsˆ 12 · · · ns ˆ 1n
A · · · ns A 
 ˆ 21 ˆ 2n
 ns 0̂
A
h i
A

NS = ns
f ˆ ij = . .
 .. ..  (6)
n×n  .. .. . . 

A
ˆ n1 ns A
ˆ n2 ··· 0̂
ns

lijA mijA uijA

" #
A
nsˆ ij = , , (7)
max ∑nj=1 uijA max ∑nj=1 uijA max ∑nj=1 uijA
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 26 of 43

Next, the fuzzy total-relation matrix TS

f was acquired as follows:

1 2 k −1
f A ) + ( NS
f = lim (( NS
TS f A ) + · · · + ( NS
f A ) )= NS
f A × ( E − NS
f A) (8)
k→∞

ˆ 12 ˆ 1n
 
0̂ ts · · · ts
 ˆ 21
 ts 0̂ ˆ 2n 
· · · ts
ˆ ij ˆ ijl , ts
ˆ ij = (ts ˆ ijm , ts
ˆ iju )
  
f = ts
TS n×n
= . .
 .. ..  , ts (9)
 .. .. . .  
ˆ n1 ts
ts ˆ n2 ··· 0̂
−1
h i

 ˆ ijl = ns
ts ˆ ijl × ( E − ns ˆ ijl )


h i
ˆ ijm = ns
ts ˆ ijm × ( E − ns ˆ ijm )−1 (10)

 h i
 ˆu
ˆ iju × ( E − ns ˆ iju )−1

 tsij = ns

(4) Step 4. Defuzzifying the fuzzy total-relation matrix

In order to acquire a crisp total-relation matrix, it was necessary to defuzzify the
element of the fuzzy total-relation matrix above. In this study, the calculation operator for
the process of defuzzifying used the operator in the literature [108].

ˆ ijl + 4ts
ts ˆ ijm + ts
ˆ iju
ˆ ij =
ts (11)
6

(5) Step 5. Determining the weight of performance indicators of I3EAM

After obtaining the crisp total-relation matrix, the sum of the rows and the sum of the
columns are separately denoted as Xi and Yj , respectively, within the crisp total-relation
matrix through the following formulas:
" # " #
n n
Xi = [ xi ] = ∑ ts ˆ ij , Yj = y j = ∑ ts ˆ ij
 
(12)
j =1 i =1

Next, based on the crisp total-relation matrix, xi and y j were used to calculate the
“Prominence” and “Relation”, respectively. In the approach of DEMATEL, the “Prominence”
represents the strength of the influences that were both dispatched and received, and
the “Relation” was used to determine the difference between the dispatched ones and
the received ones. The vector pi named “Prominence” was obtained by adding xi to y j .
Similarly, the vector ri named “Relation” was obtained by subtracting xi to y j . The vector
pi reveals how much importance the criterion has, and the vector ri divides the criteria into
groups of the cause and the effect.

pi = xi + y j , ri = xi − y j , i = j (13)

Then, the importance of the ith I3EAM performance indicator ωi was calculated using
Equation (14) as follows. q
ωi = pi 2 + ri 2 (14)
The importance of any I3EAM performance indicator can be normalized with Equation (15)
as follows:
ωi
Wi = (15)
∑ 1≤ i ≤ n ωi
(6) Step 6. Constructing the group fuzzy initial decision matrix with determining the
appropriate linguistic variables
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 27 of 43

Assuming that there are p social digitalization platforms (SDPs) being evaluated by q
decision makers (DMs) with respect to n performance indicators, the kth decision maker’s
linguistic initial decision matrix Nk is as follows:
k k k
 
SDP1 d11 d12 ··· d1n
 k k k
SDP2  d21 d22 ··· d2n


Nk = .  k = 1, 2, . . . , q (16)
 
..  . .. .. ..
 .
 . . . . 

SDPp dkp1 dkp2 ··· dkpn

where dijk is the kth decision maker’s judgement with a linguistic variable for the ith SDP
under the jth I3EAM performance indicator, q is the number of experts, and n is the number
of I3EAM performance indicator.
Aiming to evaluate the alternatives concerning the performance indicators, the lin-
guistic terms include: “Very poor (VP)”, ”Poor (P)”, “Fair (F)”, “Good (G)”, and “Very good
(VG)”, as well as their corresponding TFNs, which are (0,0,0.25), (0,0.25,0.5), (0.25,0.5,0.75),
(0.5,0.75,1), and (0.75,1,1), respectively. Similarly, the group fuzzy initial decision matrix D
e
can be obtained as follows:

dˆ11 dˆ12 · · · dˆ1n

 
 dˆ ˆ · · · dˆ2n 
 21 d22 
De=
 .. .. .. ..  (17)
 . . . . 

dˆp1 dˆp2 · · · dˆpn
n o n o
dq dq
where dˆij = (lˆijd , m̂ijd , ûijd ), lˆijd = lijd1 , . . . , lijdk . . . , lij , m̂ijd = mijd1 , . . . , mijdk . . . , mij , and
n o
dq
ûijd = uijd1 , . . . , uijdk . . . , uij . Then, by calculating the average value of each element in dˆij ,
the group fuzzy decision matrix D e A , which was aggregated, can be obtained.
(7) Step 7. Acquiring the weighted fuzzy decision matrix
e ∗ was obtained as follows:
The weighted fuzzy decision matrix D
h i
De ∗ = dˆ∗ , i = 1, 2, . . . , p; j = 1, 2, . . . , n (18)
ij
n×n

where dˆij∗ = Ŵj ⊗ dˆijA , Ŵj is the weight of the jth performance indicator calculated by
q q q
Equation (15), and dˆA = (l dA , mdA , udA ) = ( 1 ∑
ij ij ij l dk , 1 ∑
ij mdk , 1 ∑
q udk ).
k =1 ij q k =1 ij q k =1 ij
(8) Step 8. Determining the fuzzy positive-ideal solution (FPIS) and fuzzy negative-ideal
solution (FNIS)
The FPIS and FNIS were identified from the weighted fuzzy decision matrix by
calculating Equations (19) and (20), respectively. The dˆ∗+ ˆ∗−
j and d j separately represent the
FPIS and FNIS, respectively.

dˆ∗+
j = max(dˆij∗ ) where dˆ∗+
j
u
= max(dˆij∗u ) (19)
i i

dˆ∗−
j = min(dˆij∗ ) where dˆ∗−
j
l
= min(dˆij∗l ) (20)
i i

(9) Step 9. Calculating the distance of each SDP alternative from FPIS and FNIS
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 28 of 43

The distances (Di+ and Di− ) of each alternative from dˆ∗+ ˆ∗−
j and d j can calculated by
using the following equations.
v
u
u1 n
2 2 2
h i
+
Di = t
3 ∑ (dˆij∗l − dˆij∗+l ) + (dˆij∗m − dˆij∗+m ) + (dˆij∗u − dˆij∗+u ) (21)
j =1

v
u
u1 n
2 2 2
h i
−
Di = t
3 ∑ (dˆij∗l − dˆij∗−l ) + (dˆij∗m − dˆij∗−m ) + (dˆij∗u − dˆij∗−u ) (22)
Machines 2022, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW j =1 29 of 44

(10) Step 10. Acquiring the closeness coefficients and the priority of alternatives
The
Thecloseness coefficientsCC
closenesscoefficients 𝐶𝐶i represents
representsthe
therelative
relativegaps–degree
gaps–degreeofofeach
eachSPD
SPDalterna-
alter-
tive, and CC
native, and 𝐶𝐶 can be obtained through calculating Equation (23). On the basis of
i can be obtained through calculating Equation (23). On the basis CCi,,we
of 𝐶𝐶 we
can also acquire the priority of all of the SDP alternatives (digitalization service provider
can also acquire the priority of all of the SDP alternatives (digitalization service provider
for
forthe
theco-implementation
co-implementationof ofI3EAM).
I3EAM).
D𝐷−
CCi𝐶𝐶
= =+ i (23)
(23)
Di𝐷 ++D𝐷i−

7.7.Case
CaseStudy
Study
7.1. Reference Model of I3EAM Schemes in Automated Container Terminals
7.1. Reference Model of I3EAM Schemes in Automated Container Terminals
In this section, a case study of building an I3EAM solution in an Automated Container
In this section, a case study of building an I3EAM solution in an Automated Con-
Terminal (ACT) application scenario will be presented. The case was also taken as an
tainer Terminal (ACT) application scenario will be presented. The case was also taken as
example to demonstrate the application of the proposed general model and reference
an example to demonstrate the application of the proposed general model and reference
architecture. The context of the study is the digital transformation needs of the ports,
architecture. The context of the study is the digital transformation needs of the ports,
which require the use of Industrial Internet technologies and platforms to build a parallel
which require the use of Industrial Internet technologies and platforms to build a parallel
management system for container terminal equipment assets. We invited several industry
management system for container terminal equipment assets. We invited several industry
experts, marine equipment companies, and port terminal companies to discuss and use
experts, marine equipment companies, and port terminal companies to discuss and use
the general reference model to collect and qualitatively analyze the requirements for the
the general reference model to collect and qualitatively analyze the requirements for the
I3EAM solution for automated container terminals. Figure 10 shows the reference model of
I3EAM solution for automated container terminals. Figure 10 shows the reference model
I3EAM schemes in automated container terminals (ACTs).
of I3EAM schemes in automated container terminals (ACTs).

Figure 10. Reference model of I3EAM schemes in automated container terminals.

Figure 10. Reference model of I3EAM schemes in automated container terminals.

(1) Dimension 1: Industrial Internet element (II) dimension

The Equipment Asset Management of automated container terminals presents com-
prehensive requirements for the Industrial Internet elements, including the physical en-
tity, the virtual object, the digital twin data, the interaction, and the service. In this study,
the physical entity models in the ACTs include lifting equipment, crane equipment, stor-
age yard equipment, port heavy AGV, the container truck and its sensory systems and
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 29 of 43

(1) Dimension 1: Industrial Internet element (II) dimension

The Equipment Asset Management of automated container terminals presents com-
prehensive requirements for the Industrial Internet elements, including the physical entity,
the virtual object, the digital twin data, the interaction, and the service. In this study, the
physical entity models in the ACTs include lifting equipment, crane equipment, storage
yard equipment, port heavy AGV, the container truck and its sensory systems and environ-
mental systems. To build the ACT simulation and emulation systems, the construction and
management of virtual object models is considered to be necessary to realize the sensing,
modeling, and management of the physical entities, the information flows, and the social
relationships. Multiple sources of heterogeneous data were required to be integrated and
managed, including the data from the physical entities, virtual objects, and services, the
domain knowledge, and the fused data. The service model is comprised of real-time moni-
toring, state assessment, fault diagnosis, intelligent maintenance, and intelligent decision
making (i.e., production scheduling, etc.). The interaction models built the connections
among the different models.
(2) Dimension 2: Industry (I) dimension
Container terminals are closely related to marine engineering and shipping, transporta-
tion and other industries. From the perspective of equipment assets, they should belong
to the marine engineering and shipping industry, which will inherit the characteristics of
the industry and adapt to the development needs of the industry. Due to various reasons
such as efficiency, costs, and epidemics, the container terminals and unmanned terminals
have become the trend of industry development, and there is an urgent need to improve
the level of terminal digitalization, networking, and intelligence.
(3) Dimension 3: EAM-related activities (EAM) dimension
In Section 4, the comprehensive EAM-related activity model is introduced, and it
was used for analyzing and recognizing the scenario-based value in automated container
terminals. From the perspective of the equipment’s lifecycle, using and safeguarding them
is regarded as the main application scenario in automated container terminals. From the
perspective of business collaboration, automated container terminals constitute a complex
organic system, which includes the level of equipment health that will affect different levels
of the integrated systems (including the station, the work center, the production line, and
the enterprise). From the perspective of system support, the entire ACT system will also be
affected by random factors such as the arrival of the cargo vessel, and so the system usually
requires dynamic response and scheduling. Therefore, the necessary planning and control
activities need to be provided at the levels of both integration and operation.

7.2. Reference Architecture for the Implementation of I3EAM in Automated Container Terminals
Referring to the architecture that is proposed in Section 5, the implementation path
of I3EAM in the automated container terminals is composed of six common steps and
special elements about the automated container terminal corresponding to the enterprise
needs. Figure 11 shows the whole picture of the reference architecture for the I3EAM
implementation in automated container terminals.
(1) Step 1: Industrial resource and edge layer in ACTs
For automated container terminals, the main equipment includes the lifting equip-
ment, the crane equipment, the storage yard equipment, the port heavy AGV, and the
container truck. The focused sub-systems in the EAM business include the reduction
gearbox, the pressure pump, the steel structure, the rotating mechanical parts, the electrical
control system, the AGV battery, the AGV motor, and the motor synergy system. For
connection and communication, the sensory systems should provide the data perception
capacities about the various physical signals involving the vibration, temperature, current,
pressure, position, torque, image, video, and laser ones. Additionally, many RFID-based
systems and smart terminals are used for non-physical signals. With the consideration of
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 30 of 43
Machines 2022, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 32 of 44

the heterogenous equipment and edge sensors, the intelligent gateway and configurable
targeting was achieved from multiple perspectives, such as single machine equipment
protocol pool were planned and developed.
performance and system control.

Figure 11. Reference architecture for the I3EAM implementation in automated container terminals.
Figure 11. Reference architecture for the I3EAM implementation in automated container terminals.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 31 of 43

(2) Step 2: Cloud-based Industrial Internet platform layer in ACTs

The cloud environment is necessary for the open, flexible, and dynamic business
regarding automated container terminals. The designed platform of I3EAM in the ACTs
is divided into four basic layers, including the cloud-edge collaboration layer, the IaaS
layer, the PaaS layer, and the SaaS layer. Between the heterogenous integrated equipment
and the remote control platform, it was necessary to establish a time-sensitive pipeline for
the data/service/resource collaboration. In addition, intelligent reasoning for the edge
sides and flexible data acquisition strategies were also required. The platform should
be based on the microservice technical architecture. Meanwhile, the general enabling
functions for resource virtualization, resource management, and service development
and deployment were selected from the reference architecture, including the Resource
Management, Environment Management, Deployment and Scheduling, and Configuration
Management ones, etc. The APP DevOps toolchain and ecosystem are also important for
the whole I3EAM scheme. Based on the protocol adaptor, secure connector, and distributed
message engine, the various source data were collected in the form of streaming data or
batch data.
(3) Step 3: Industrial big data engine layer in ACTs
The third step was to plan and construct the big data engine for the common require-
ments in the perspective of the data source and the edge connection, the data acquisition,
the data processing, and the data service and portal. In the data warehouse, the subject data
which were to be collected for the automated container terminals included the equipment
source data, the operation source data, the maintenance source data, and the maritime
source data. The system should have a data extraction capability and it should use ETL
(Extract-Transform-Load) tools to realize data import and fusion into the database. Through
the data rule engine, the data quality management and its standardization, and the standard
data, which are scattered, fragmented, and non-uniform, should be loaded and integrated
into the data warehouse. In addition, data processing functions in the online and offline
modes were needed, including machine learning (ML) tools, stream analytics, an OLAP
analysis, and an interactive analysis. To satisfy different data service requirements, the
tools for the full data lifecycle will be encapsulated as microservices and invoked through
the APIs to support various business intelligence (BI) processes and to provide access to
the users’ data.
(4) Step 4: Industrial modelling and simulation (M and S) layer in ACTs
Through the demand analysis of predictive maintenance for automated terminals,
the system decision strategy will use a combination of online and offline, stand-alone and
system, equipment and process, local diagnosis, local diagnosis and remote diagnosis,
wired communication and wireless communication systems. The I3EAM solution requires
multi-level and multi-faceted condition monitoring, fault diagnosis, and intelligent main-
tenance for the automated terminals to fully ensure the stable and reliable operation of
the terminal production and operation. Modeling and model libraries play an important
role in the process of the intellectualization of the container terminals, including intelligent
perception, intelligent control, and intelligent decision making. In the environment of
rich data sources, multiple layers of analyses need to be developed, including descriptive,
diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive, and cognitive analyses.
The descriptive analysis model contains the models of data pre-processing, feature anal-
ysis and extraction (such as the RQA method, etc.), feature selection and fusion (such as
Wrapper, etc.), and the special physical models such as the steel structure damage mechanism
models such as the modified M-C formula, etc. The diagnostic analysis model contains
the single-machine fault diagnosis, the multi-machine abnormality identification, the bat-
tery abnormal diagnosis, the motor fault diagnosis, and the multi-sensor or multimodal
information-based models. The predictive analysis model contains the health assessment and
residual useful life (RUL) prediction models, and the degradation mechanisms and health
index for the various ACT equipment and the key components. Additionally, the prescriptive
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 32 of 43

and cognitive analyses need to pay more attention to causal-based decision making, including
the predictive maintenance decision-making models and the optimization algorithms, the
maintenance network configuration, and the explainable cause–effect models.
In addition, the simulation layer was needed, and as well as this, the equipment con-
figuration and physical simulations were considered. Combining the domain knowledge of
complex equipment and equipment performance, the visual integration of the automated
container terminals was realized based on 3D models. Through equipment configuration
management and imitation learning based on scaling models and accelerated tests, a more
realistic simulation was carried out to optimize and improve it, and better targeting was
achieved from multiple perspectives, such as single machine equipment performance and
system control.
(5) Step 5: Industrial information model and collaboration layer in ACTs
The industrial information model is an essential agreement that is shared by the partic-
ipants and components in any networked and integrated system, facilitating compatibility
and interoperability. Under the application scenario of the ACTs, different Industrial In-
ternet elements (the physical entity, the virtual object, the data, and the service) in I3EAM
are evolving and generating new interaction and collaboration requirements. The system
needs to support the high level of interoperability, customized development, and the flexi-
ble configuration of the industrial information models. During the implementation, the
different elements and their interactions were delicately and unambiguously named and
assigned according to the conceptual, declarative, and programmatic representations.
(6) Step 6: Industrial organization, business, and service layer in ACTs
Based on the EAM dimensions in the reference model and the service activity meta-
model given in Section 5.7, the scenario-based service requirements of the automated
container terminals were identified. The automated container terminals are the application
scenario of the offshore equipment such as cranes, which mainly consider the use and
protection phase of the equipment. According to the level of system integration, the status
performance of single machine equipment needed to be linked with the parts (spare parts),
workstations, terminal areas, enterprises, and service networks. The identified service
scenarios will be transformed into industrial APP development requirements.
In the I3EAM of the targeted automated container terminal, three types of industrial
APPs needed to be developed as follows:
• The Equipment Asset Management APPs of using and safeguarding: information fusion
APPs, remote monitoring APPs, fault diagnosis APPs, maintenance decision APPs, and
health assessment APPs for the mechanical structure, transmission system, drive motor,
power battery, electrical systems of the marine engineering equipment in the ACTs.
• The EAM-related business collaboration service APPs: spare parts management APPs
(such as spare parts importance assessment, safety stock quotas, and procurement
decision-making), reliability-driven container terminal scheduling APPs (such as
crane/yard/AGV/container truck scheduling), maintenance network design and
configuration, and collaborative maintenance of maintenance centers for multiple
container terminals, etc.
• The EAM-related support service APPs: remote operation platform, semi-automatic
control configuration rules management APPs, asset information management APPs,
monitoring large screen and dashboard, multi-dimensional data statistics APPs, re-
porting APPs, and fault knowledge-based APPs.

7.3. Evaluation and Selection of I3EAM Schemes in Automated Container Terminals

(1) I3EAM scheme alternative profile
The case background is a new automated container terminal construction project in a
coastal city in China. In order to enhance the digitalization and intelligence of the container
terminal, there was an urgent need to develop a new Equipment Asset Management
solution to help the terminal improve its operational capabilities. Social digitalization
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 33 of 43

platforms have become the enabler and the accelerator for transformation in traditional
industries. Aiming at the I3EAM in the automated container terminal, there were four
SDP alternatives for the co-implementation of I3EAM, including MindSphere (Siemens),
Azure (Microsoft), ROOTCLOUD (SANY), INDICS (CASICCloud), at the start of the project.
According to the implementation requirements that were analyzed previously, the four
SDPs submitted their technical solutions. The project team applied the proposed framework
and approach to decide for the best scheme and platform partner. Due to confidentiality
reasons, the schemes are randomly named as P1 –P4 .
(2) Expert-based evaluation data collection
The project team consists of eight decision makers, including industry experts, marine
equipment companies, and port terminal companies, all of whom have an average of more
than 10 years of experience in terminal construction or digital transformation. Similarly,
the decision makers’ profiles and the order of the decision making are not declared here,
but they are randomly labelled as DM1 –DM8 .
The performance metric set and the evaluation and selection approach in Section 6
were used to help select the best alternative of I3EAM scheme and its social digitalization
platform for the automated container terminals. To determine the weight of the performance
indicators and the priority of the alternatives, each member of the decision group provided
two initial evaluation matrices, including the dependence matrix of performance indicators,
and the decision matrix of I3EAM schemes with its SDPs. The original data are provided
in Appendix A (Tables A1–A3). There is one table containing the brief information of the
decision makers, and there are two tables for the two groups of fuzzy initial matrices.
(3) Performance indicator weight analysis by fuzzy DEMATEL
In this study, the computational tool and environment for the fuzzy DEMATEL method
was Matlab2022a. The process of the weighting analysis is outlined as follows. Through cal-
culating Formula (1) and using the membership function in Table 4, the initial dependence
matrix of performance indicators was converted to the triangular fuzzy direct-relation
matrix. Next, by using Equations (4)–(10), the fuzzy normalized direct-relation matrix
and fuzzy total-relation matrix were obtained. Then, the fuzzy total-relation matrix was
defuzzified through Equation (11). Finally, based on the crisp total-relation matrix, the
normalized weights can be obtained by calculating Equations (12)–(15). As shown in
Table 5, the computation results were obtained.

Table 5. The importance and normalized weights of performance indicators of I3EAM.

Indicators ωi Wi

B1 2.4254 0.0746
B2 1.0255 0.0315
B3 2.8756 0.0884
T1 1.8564 0.0571
T2 1.8314 0.0563
T3 3.5128 0.1080
T4 3.8550 0.1185
T5 1.5719 0.0483
T6 2.4328 0.0748
T7 2.5513 0.0784
T8 2.9460 0.0906
A1 1.6440 0.0505
A2 1.9866 0.0611
A3 0.9139 0.0281
A4 1.1009 0.0338
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 34 of 43

In our case, the T4 (Industrial modeling and simulation service capability), T3 (Indus-
trial big data engine performance), T8 (System integration and collaboration capability),
B3 (Cost of digitalization service), T7 (Scheme technical architecture performance), T6
(Development environment supporting), and B1 (Talent guarantee) emerge as the top six
performance indicators of I3EAM in the automated container terminals.
(4) I3EAM scheme sorting and selection by fuzzy TOPSIS
Similarly, the computational tool and environment for the fuzzy TOPSIS method
was Matlab2022a. By applying Equation (18) and combining the normalized weights, the
weighted fuzzy decision matrix was obtained. Then, through Equations (19) and (20), both
the fuzzy positive-ideal solution (FPIS) and the fuzzy negative-ideal solution (FNIS) were
calculated, and they are listed in Table 6.

Table 6. The fuzzy positive-ideal solution (FPIS) and fuzzy negative-ideal solution (FNIS).

Indicators FPIS FNIS

B1 (0.0443, 0.0629, 0.0722) (0.0117, 0.0280, 0.0466)

B2 (0.0099, 0.0177, 0.0246) (0.0039, 0.0118, 0.0197)
B3 (0.0497, 0.0718, 0.0884) (0.0000, 0.0221, 0.0442)
T1 (0.0428, 0.0571, 0.0571) (0.0161, 0.0303, 0.0446)
T2 (0.0281, 0.0422, 0.0563) (0.0088, 0.0229, 0.0369)
T3 (0.0776, 0.1046, 0.1080) (0.0337, 0.0607, 0.0877)
T4 (0.0741, 0.1037, 0.1185) (0.0222, 0.0518, 0.0815)
T5 (0.0076, 0.0196, 0.0317) (0.0015, 0.0060, 0.0181)
T6 (0.0374, 0.0561, 0.0678) (0.0000, 0.0187, 0.0374)
T7 (0.0515, 0.0711, 0.0784) (0.0147, 0.0343, 0.0539)
T8 (0.0566, 0.0792, 0.0906) (0.0255, 0.0481, 0.0708)
A1 (0.0221, 0.0347, 0.0474) (0.0063, 0.0190, 0.0316)
A2 (0.0382, 0.0534, 0.0611) (0.0057, 0.0210, 0.0363)
A3 (0.0114, 0.0184, 0.0255) (0.0000, 0.0061, 0.0132)
A4 (0.0212, 0.0296, 0.0338) (0.0000, 0.0042, 0.0127)

Using Equations (21)–(23), the distance to the ideal solutions, closeness coefficient,
and priority of each alternative can be calculated, as shown in Table 7. Meanwhile, the
sorting of I3EAM scheme alternatives was obtained as follows: P3 (CC3 = 0.6802) >
P2 (CC2 = 0.4574) > P4 (CC4 = 0.4553) > P1 (CC1 = 0.3376). Therefore, the P3 was the
selected alternative.

Table 7. The closeness coefficients and the priority of alternatives.

Alternatives D+i Di− CCi Sorting

P1 0.0494 0.0969 0.3376 4

P2 0.0668 0.0792 0.4574 2
P3 0.0941 0.0442 0.6802 1
P4 0.0700 0.0837 0.4553 3

7.4. The Results

In the case study above, the I3EAM’s system model and reference architecture pro-
vided the knowledge structure and systematic decision-making approach for the digitaliza-
tion of the targeted global port. In our case, the applicational results of our model will be
tested and examined in two main aspects: (1) whether it supports the correct implemen-
tation of the automated container terminal EAM system, and (2) whether it reduces the
complexity and uncertainty of decision making.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 35 of 43

For the first question, we examined the deviations of the implementation results of the
ACT from the planning. The results show that the requirements and system architecture
planning that were analyzed by I3EAM cover the list of functions of the ACT in the review
phase. Around the three core equipment assets of the ACT, the project finally established
capabilities such as structure resolution, edge connectivity, platform aggregation, big data
engine, the model repository and ACT simulation tools, and the APP service pool. The
operational status of the equipment assets can be transmitted back to the remote monitoring
cloud platform through multi-channel and multi-type sensors in real time, and the joint
diagnosis can be performed based on remote experts and online models. The cargo vessel
demands and equipment status were incorporated into a joint scheduling model, while
the swarm intelligence approaches are used to coordinate multiple equipment clusters.
The overall port throughput performance meets the expected design target of 4 million
containers per year. At the same time, the ACT’s flexible architecture enables a scalability
up to a forward throughput of 6.3 million containers per year.
For the second question, we went back to five of the decision makers of the project
team and several other project members. They represented the port group, the equipment
manufacturer, the terminal operator, and the external experts. The performance of the pro-
posed decision-making model and process was validated via 12 semi-structure interviews
and the backtracking of documents. All of the respondents indicated that our knowledge
structure had a significant impact during the project planning phase, especially as the
Industrial Internet standards were being developed at that time. In addition, they believe
that the reference architecture generalizes the multi-view knowledge well and provides
analytical tools to help implement EAM systems in different domains. The respondents
agreed that the research result provided a logical, understandable, and step-by-step guide
for the EAM projects. The model facilitates the project teams’ systematic understanding of
the Industrial Internet and EAM, collaboration across organizations, and the identification
of the best platform partner.

8. Discussion
8.1. Caparisions among the Existing Research and the Research in This Paper for EAM
In the part of the status review (see Section 2), a comprehensive survey and comparison
of the existing studies about the Industrial Internet-based EAM were made, including
the related concepts, key technologies, application fields, decision support systems, and
technical solutions, etc. The existing research mainly focus on the explicit technologies of
EAM and their local applications, and only a few works give a comprehensive view of EAM
implementation under the Industrial Internet-based environment. In China, the Alliance
of Industrial Internet (AII) has released “Industrial Internet System Architecture (IISA)
version 2.0” [13], which means the reference architecture of the Industrial Internet Platform
(IIP) has been standardized. From the perspective of the future consideration of the IIP,
China’s IIP needs to emphasize the scenario-driven architecture design and implementation
to adapt to our national conditions [9]. However, as an important applicational scenario,
the EAM domain still lacks a clear implementation path based on Industrial Internet for
the actual projects. In this paper, the authors proposed a general system model, a reference
architecture, and an evaluation system with the metric set and decision-making approach
in order to establish the mapping with EAM application requirements and the IIP system
architecture. The model of I3EAM is based on the IISA 2.0 and digital twin metamodel, and
it provides more powerful high-level abstractions, and as well as this, the structured model
can be developed and integrated quickly. The paradigm of Design Science Research (DSR)
has been introduced into the study along fusion path between EAM and Industrial Internet.
This is a valuable addition to existing research. Meanwhile, the system architecture research
provides support for the horizontal collaboration of the existing research.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 36 of 43

8.2. Caparisions between Traditional Information System and Social Digitalization Platform
Platform-based digitalization is emphasized here, particularly to leverage the abilities
of social digitalization platforms. The traditional process of business–IT alignment focuses
on the implementation of information systems, such as SCADA, ERP, MES, etc. The
information system is seen as a system of records to assist staff in the local monitoring
and managing of the operational status of the equipment assets. Social digitalization
platforms based on the Industrial Internet are more focused on how to support the wider
interaction and collaboration in heterogeneous environments. For example, two types
of information systems have been developed by separate entities, and they support the
operation of container terminals. One type is the product service system that is provided by
the equipment manufacturers, i.e., the condition monitoring software for structures, motors,
and transmissions. One type is the shipping data system of the port group company,
which collects the vessel and cargo information. In the traditional model, there is no
integration between the two information systems. However, the EAM model recognizes
that automated container terminals require the integration of demanding information,
equipment reliability, and O and M planning to enable rapid resource scheduling. Therefore,
when one is evaluating different I3EAM solutions using a structured model, the modelling
of heterogeneous data integration and collaborative scheduling issues were highlighted to
be the highest priority. Meanwhile, the eventual winner (P3 in Table 7), which shows the
accumulation of its shipping data analysis capabilities and general technologies, obtained
the favor of the decision makers. This implicit phenomenon reflects the unique ecosystem
advantage of the social digitalization platforms over the traditional IT service providers.

8.3. Caparisions between Traditional Process and Proposed Process for Decision Making
In the past, information systems development has been implemented during the
phase of assets operation. However, digitalization is merging asset development, business
innovation, and IT support. In our case, the Yangshan automated container terminal was
regarded as a whole complex system, and the project emphasized the importance of overall
planning in system implementation. The digital capabilities for EAM are the basic needs
of system planning and design. The results in this paper offer the foundation and system
engineering approaches to find the whole picture of the ACT’s EAM system. Complex
engineered systems usually involve many stakeholders. Traditional decision-making
processes adopt the strategy of face-to-face meetings and step-by-step implementation.
Nonetheless, the stakeholders involved often have inconsistent knowledge structures and
value propositions about the target system, which leads to inefficiencies in their decision
making and negotiation processes. Our research provides decision support for both of
the two-aspect challenges. First, the multi-layer architecture illustrates the different view
and structured knowledge of the I3EAM. Next, the performance indicators define the
core potential value propositions from different perspectives. Except for the models, the
proposed evaluation method based on fuzzy DEMATEL-TOPSIS simplifies the decision-
making processes and makes them clearer. On the basis of the model, work such as
more targeted information gathering and consultation were carried out. At the same time,
the value propositions of multiple relevant stakeholders are coordinated with a scientific
decision-making approach. The fuzzy method alleviates the uncertainty in the decision-
making process. As a rough estimate, the project time for early decision making and
negotiations were reduced by 30%. The project implementation met the expected system
functional requirements and retained extensible interfaces for high-level functions.
To sum up, our research results are feasible and effective. The given model, the
architecture, and the method in this study can create a certain reference value for both
the EAM-related business–IT alignment of various enterprises (especially SMEs) and the
development of IIPs (especially SDPs).
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 37 of 43

9. Conclusions
The research motivation and the objective of this paper are to improve the capability
of complex system awareness and decision-making for I3EAM projects and to provide
reference knowledge for the top-level planning and the effective implementation of different
industrial enterprises. This study proposes a general reference model and a reference
architecture for the implementation of Industrial Internet Solution for Industrial Equipment
Asset Management (I3EAM). In addition, this study also developed a set of performance
indicators for I3EAM and a scheme selection method by using the fuzzy DEMATEL-
TOPSIS approach. A case study from the practice in an automated container terminal
project demonstrates the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed model, architecture, and
approach. Various industrial enterprises can carry out the analysis and top-level planning
of their I3EAM needs, and the evaluation and selection of a co-implementation platform
partner with our research results. Industrial Internet Platforms (IIPs) can carry out self-
evaluation and self-diagnosis continuously for their EAM technical solutions based on the
general model and reference architecture.
The scientific contribution of our study is remarkable, especially the exploratory work
of DSR (Design Science Research) for the combination of EAM and the Industrial Internet.
The structured knowledge and reference architecture models will reduce the complexity
and uncertainty of system development, directly. IISA 2.0 is the standardized reference
architecture model for the Industrial Internet in China, and this work is also the first
to establish a detailed IISA-based scenario application model. Our research provides a
useful and valuable addition to the existing academic literature and community such as
EAM, II, information system, and digital transformation, etc., and it promotes collaborative
evolution among these fields.
Due to the limited space, there are some follow-up works that need to be studied to
supplement these findings. The future works of this study mainly contain three aspects.
• Firstly, more detailed content should be studied and analyzed for the comprehen-
sive I3EAM reference model and technical architecture, including key technologies,
information models, governance mechanisms, and programmatic components.
• Secondly, more precise and refined performance metrics and group decision methods
should be used for the design of complex systems and system architecture.
• Thirdly, they should be further applied and verified in various industries and fields.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, Y.B. and X.M.; methodology, Y.B., X.Z., T.Z. and Z.C.; vali-
dation, Y.B.; investigation, Y.B. and Z.C.; data curation, Y.B.; writing—original draft preparation, Y.B.;
writing—review and editing, Y.B., X.Z., T.Z., Z.C. and X.M.; supervision, X.M.; funding acquisition,
X.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No.
71632008]; Transformation and Upgrading of Industry in 2017 (China Manufacturing 2025) [Grant
No. ZL35060009002]; Special Development Fund of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone [No. 725
(Title of funding project: ‘Integrated equipment R&D and demonstration application in Yangshan
automation container terminal’)].
Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufac-
turing Environment, Shanghai Research Center for industrial Informatics (SRCI2), and SJTU Innovation
Center of Producer Service Development (SICPSD) for the funding support to this research.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 38 of 43

Appendix A

Table A1. The detail information for the decision-makers.

Number of DM Type of DM Working Years of DM

Vice General Manager and

1 15
Project manager
2 Group IT Director 13
3 Group Chief Engineer 25
Vice Director of Manufacturer
4 16
Software Inc.
5 General manager of ACT 13
6 Director of Strategic Planning 15
7 Group Financial Director 20
8 External Expert (Professor) 23

Table A2. The group fuzzy initial direct-relation matrix.

DM1 B1 B2 B3 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 A1 A2 A3 A4
B1 0 2 3 1 1 0 4 3 0 3 3 0 0 0 0
B2 0 0 2 0 2 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 2 0 0
B3 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
T1 0 0 0.5 0 0.5 3 4 3 0.5 4 0.5 2 0 0 0
T2 2 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 3 3 0 2 1
T3 2 0 3 0 1 0 4 2 3 3 2 2 0 2 1
T4 3 0 4 1 0 3 0 1 2 1 4 2 1 0 2
T5 0 0 2 3 0 2 2 0 2 2 2 1 0 0 0
T6 2 0 3 0 0 2 2 2 0 1 4 1 2 0 1
T7 0 0 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0
T8 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
A1 2 0 0.5 0 1 2 2 0.5 1 0 1 0 0 0 3
A2 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 1 0 2 3 1 0 1 2
A3 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3
A4 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
DM8 B1 B2 B3 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 A1 A2 A3 A4
B1 0 0 2 1 1 2 3 0 1 3 2 1 0 0 1
B2 0 0 2 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0
B3 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0.5 0 0 0 0 0 0
T1 0 0 3 0 1 2 2 0.5 0 3 2 1 0 0 0
T2 0 0 2 2 0 2 1 0 0 2 3 0 0 1 2
T3 2 0 4 0.5 3 0 4 1 1 3 3 2 0 1 0
T4 4 0 4 1 0.5 4 0 1 1 2 2 1 0 1 1
T5 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0
T6 2 0 2 1 1 3 3 2 0 2 3 2 2 0 1
T7 0 0 3 0 2 3 3 1 1 0 3 1 0 0 0
T8 0 0 2 1 1 2 3 2 2 3 0 0 0 0 2
A1 2 0 1 0 1 2 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 1 2
A2 3 0 2 0 2 2 4 1 0 3 2 1 0 1 3
A3 0 1 1 0 0 0.5 2 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 2
A4 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Machines 2022, 10, 1137 39 of 43

Table A3. The group fuzzy initial direct decision matrix.

B1 B2 B3 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 A1 A2 A3 A4

DM1 P1 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.5 0.25 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.5 0.5 0.75 0.25 0.25 0.25

P2 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.5 1 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.75 1 0.75 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5

P3 0.5 0.5 0.5 1 0.5 1 1 0.25 0.75 1 0.5 0.75 0.5 0.75 1

P4 1 0.5 1 0.25 0.75 0.5 0.25 0 0.25 0.75 0.5 0.5 1 0.25 0.5

DM2 P1 0.5 1 0.75 0.25 0.25 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.75 0.75 0.25 0 0

P2 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.5 1 0.75 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.75 1 0.75 0.5 0.25 0.75

P3 0.5 0.5 0.75 1 0.75 1 0.75 0.75 0.5 1 0.5 0.75 0.25 0.5 1

P4 0.75 0.5 0.75 0.25 0.75 0.5 0.5 0 0.25 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.75 0.25 0.5

DM3 P1 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.25

P2 0.75 0.25 0.25 0.75 1 0.75 0.25 0.25 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.5 0.5 0.5

P3 0.5 0.5 0.5 1 0.5 1 1 0.25 1 0.75 0.5 0.75 0.5 0.75 0.75

P4 1 0.5 0.75 0.5 0.75 0.75 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.5 0.25 0.75 0.25 0.75
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

DM8 P1 0.5 0.5 0.75 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.75 0.75 0.25 0.25 0 0

P2 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.75 1 0.5 0.5 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 0.75 0.75 0.5 0.5

P3 0.5 0.25 0.5 1 0.75 1 1 0.25 0.5 1 0.75 0.75 0.5 0.75 0.75

P4 1 0.5 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.5 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.75 0.75 0.25 1 0.25 0.75

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