Evaluating RFID technology capabilities in order to improve maintenance management of urban tunnel systems

Producer and service provider companies are highly dependent on availability and reliability of their equipment in order to keep the production line and achieve the objectives of their production and services. Many industries today face the challenge of maintenance management of their resources as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology on maintenance management of urban tunnel systems. An RFID – Maintenance management model is theorized and tested with data collected from a sample of maintenance organizations using a structural equation methodology. The theorized structural model fits the data relatively well. RFID technology utilization directly and positively impacts on maintenance management performance of urban tunnel systems. The case study and context need to be considered when generalizing upon the findings. Furthermore, it is hoped future researches could further develop the presented model and test it against implementation practice. Maintenance managers can expect to improve maintenance management performance resulting from the implementation of RFID technology. Therefore, this research provides practitioners with experience of how maintenance management performance has improved by implementing RFID technology. This paper contributes to the RFID community by providing empirical insights into the impact of RFID technology on maintenance management of urban tunnel systems, but also more broadly into maintenance management research.

Keywords:

Radio frequency identification , maintenance management , urban tunnel systems