A service design case exploring maintenance optimization in smart manufacturing, developed in collaboration with engineering stakeholders to simulate production workflows.
Before designing, I mapped the existing maintenance ecosystem through industry research, workflow analysis, and platform benchmarking to define realistic operational constraints.
$1.4T annual global loss due to equipment failure
70% of manufacturers still use spreadsheets/paper
Average downtime cost: $125K–$2M/hour
Unplanned downtime
Fragmented maintenance workflows
Lack of cross-team visibility
Legacy systems slowing response
Factory Operator:
Quick, easy issue reporting
Maintenance Tech:
Prioritized tasks, real-time alerts, mobile logs
Supervisor/Planner:
Full visibility, scheduling, and analytics
Workshops with
maintenance planners
and system engineers
helped define
role-specific needs
and guided the creation
of connected maintenance
workflows.
There is a strong opportunity to design a connected, role-based maintenance platform that streamlines reporting, enhances visibility, and closes the feedback loop across operator, technician, and supervisory roles — ultimately reducing downtime and improving user trust.
Based on journey map insights, we identified four key opportunity areas:
Empower operators with simple, structured digital tools to report issues in real time.
Help technicians receive the right task at the right time, with necessary machine context.
Equip supervisors with shared dashboards showing issue status, and repair progress.
Ensure all roles receive confirmation and updates throughout the workflow.
Mobile-first tool for technicians
Auto-assigned tasks with machine history and part references
Alerts and progress sync with other stakeholders
Touchscreen interface or mobile kiosk near factory floor
Simplified flow to log issue (voice, buttons, photo)
Automatically creates task with location and timestamp
Supervisor view: open tasks, technician assignments, downtime risk
Technicians can update progress in real time
Feedback indicators for operators once issue resolved
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Benchmarked Impact – Based on Comparable Real-World Transformations
Projected impact aligns with comparable real-world service design and low-code digitization initiatives in manufacturing environments:
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