Abstract
Engineering asset nowadays mostly replies on self-maintained experiential rulebases and periodic maintenance, which is lacking a concurrent engineering approach. To enrich the maintenance efficiency and customer relationship, this research proposes collaborative environment integrated by research center with good diagnosis and prognosis expertise. The collaborative maintenance chain jointly combines asset operation sites (i.e., maintenance demanders), research center (i.e., maintenance coordinator), system providers (i.e., maintenance providers), and suppliers. Meanwhile, to realize the automation of communication and negotiation among organizations, multi-agent system technique is applied. With agent-based collaborative environment, the entire service level of engineering asset maintenance chain is increased. © 2008 Springer-Verlag London Limited.