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The European Federation of National Maintenance Societies (EFNMS) Body of Knowledge is not just another technical manual. It’s a decade-long collaborative effort to define what maintenance truly means in the modern industrial landscape – and to elevate its status from a reactive necessity to a strategic competitive advantage.

Antoine Despujols, who retired from EDF (the French electricity utility) after a distinguished career spanning nuclear power plants, wind farms, gas turbines, and hydroelectric stations, has been the driving force behind this ambitious project. As convenor, in collaboration with the EFNMS coordinator, Lovro Frkovic, he has coordinated contributions from approximately 20 European experts, managed a review committee of 10 specialists from different countries, and overseen the creation of what is becoming the definitive reference for maintenance professionals across Europe.

The genesis of the Body of Knowledge dates back more than 10 years, though active development began in 2017. “The objective of EFNMS is to share experiences and to increase the visibility of maintenance,” Despujols explains. “We decided to work on the maintenance concept and to think about what the content of maintenance is. What are the borders, the perimeter of maintenance?”

This question led to a fundamental mapping exercise. The team identified three crucial domains interconnected with maintenance: asset management, risk management, and sustainability. “Maintenance is a part of all three,” Despujols notes. “It makes maintenance both defensive – avoiding risk – and offensive – enhancing competitiveness. It’s both a shield and a sword.”

The BoK’s structure is built on the foundation of the EN17007 European standard for maintenance processes. From this process model, the team identified approximately 80 distinct maintenance subjects, ranging from maintenance management activities and maintenance engineering techniques to maintenance support, occuparional risk management and maintenance execution.

These subjects are organized into six chapters, with each topic covered in a concise 2–3-page summary written by European experts, accompanied by relevant bibliographies for readers seeking deeper knowledge.

The development process is rigorous. Each article undergoes review by two experts from the reading committee, followed by linguistic quality control from a native English speaker in Canada, and finally professional formatting by a UK-based specialist. “It’s quite difficult to make a short article,” Despujols admits. “We have a small compensation for authors because it is real work.”

Finding new authors has become increasingly challenging. “At the beginning, members of EFNMS were significant contributors, but now they’ve written articles and we need to find others,” he says. The current version contains 25 articles, with plans to expand to more than 30 by early next year. But the long-term vision is even more ambitious: a Wikipedia-like collaborative platform where readers can propose modifications and improvements, ensuring the BoK remains a living product.

The decision to make the BoK freely downloadable was deliberate. “It is the role of EFNMS to make these articles accessible,” Despujols explains. “And because it is the first version and not complete, we need authors. If readers can say, ‘I have something to propose about an article, that could be a way to find authors.”

But perhaps the most significant development is the direct link between the BoK and the revised EN15628 standard for qualification of maintenance personnel. Despujols, who is deeply involved in standardization efforts through Technical Committee 319, was instrumental in establishing this connection. “To be qualified in maintenance, you need to have knowledge about these subjects,” he explains. “For companies, it is important for recruitment, for training people, and to know if the people they recruit are qualified.”

This connection transforms the BoK from a reference document into a practical framework for workforce development – addressing one of the industry’s most critical challenges.

When asked about the biggest challenges facing European maintenance today, Despujols points to the gap between research and implementation. “In papers, we often read articles written by researchers, but in companies, it takes time to be implemented. The main difficulty is how to implement these new technologies and new ways to perform maintenance. The relation between research and the field is not simple.”

Looking ahead, Despujols sees digitalization, predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence, and digital twins playing increasingly important roles. However, he’s quick to dispel the notion that these technologies will replace traditional approaches. “Predictive maintenance will not take the place of other kinds of maintenance. We will still have condition-based maintenance, predetermined maintenance, and corrective maintenance. All the techniques will be used in the future, even if predictive will be used increasingly.”

Currently, Despujols is focused on developing a maintenance ontology – defining the relationships between maintenance concepts to enable better use of artificial intelligence. “We need to understand the relation between concepts like failure mode, failure mechanisms, failure rate, maintenance tasks, etc.,” he explains. “This is needed to use artificial intelligence to take into account experience feedback written by technicians.”

The potential impact is significant. “In the nuclear industry, it is difficult to consider regularly the events and to react and improve continuously the maintenance plan. It is done, but with delays. If we can do that quickly, thanks to digitalization, that will be very efficient in the future.”

But perhaps Despujols’s most compelling contribution is his reframing of the maintenance profession itself. When teaching, he challenges students to reconsider their perception of maintenance work. “Very often, what comes to mind is the person who repairs your car – the garage mechanic. But if we change the maintenance definition slightly and consider the living bodies, the definition is close to medicine. You must think about maintenance not as the work of car repair, but as the work of doctors.”

This parallel is more than rhetorical. “Predictive maintenance and predictive medicine use the same kind of tools. We work on failure mechanisms, which are illnesses of equipment. We are doctors of equipment.” The implications for workforce development are profound. “This image opens the door for young people to be interested. It’s more attractive than putting your head in a car motor. And it opens the door for women too – there are few women car mechanics, but many women doctors.”

The Body of Knowledge represents more than a compilation of technical expertise. It’s an effort to create a unified European maintenance culture, to establish common standards and shared language across national boundaries, and to elevate the profession’s status. As Despujols notes, “One objective of the BoK is to have a European maintenance culture which is the same for all European countries.”

With 80 subjects identified and only 30 articles completed, the work continues. But the foundation has been laid for a comprehensive, evolving resource that bridges theory and practice, research and implementation, and perhaps most importantly, connects maintenance professionals across Europe in a shared mission to keep the continent’s industrial infrastructure running efficiently, safely, and sustainably.

The EFNMS Body of Knowledge is available for free download at www.efnms.eu .

From Research to Practice

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Antoine Despujols

Antoine Despujols career spans the intersection of research, education, and industrial practice. After working in the research and development division of EDF (Électricité de France), where he gained experience across nuclear power plants, wind farms, gas turbines, and hydroelectric stations, he simultaneously served for 12 years as head of a Master’s degree program in maintenance and risk management at a Paris university.

“I was working one day per week at university, and it was really nice for me,” he recalls. “I had the opportunity to visit many companies and to follow many students.” This dual perspective – combining cutting-edge research with practical industrial challenges and academic teaching – uniquely positioned him to lead the Body of Knowledge project.

Now 71 and retired, Despujols continues as a consultant for EDF while remaining active in standardization work and serving as the French delegate to EFNMS, a role he has held since 2008. He previously served on the EFNMS board and continues to contribute to the evolution of maintenance standards and practices across Europe.

His current focus on maintenance ontology – defining the relationships between maintenance concepts to enable AI applications – reflects his ongoing commitment to bridging the gap between theoretical advancement and practical implementation, the challenge he identifies as maintenance’s greatest hurdle.