Approach to the Management Applied to the Periodical Technical Inspection (PTI) Stations in the Context of Industry 4.0

Abstract

This work is a first approach to the management applied to the Periodical Technical Inspection (PTI) stations in the context of Industry 4.0. Since 1965, PTIs are mandatory in Spain, initially only for public transport and freight trucks, but since the 1980s they are compulsory for all types of vehicles, in order to control vehicles technical performance to avoid traffic accidents. Number of PTI stations and inspection lines have been increased from 1981 to 2017, from about 30 to more than 460 operative stations and from about 70 to more than 1200 inspection lines. This fact makes necessary to implement a new management model in the context of the Industry 4.0 that will lead to the PTI 4.0. The use of cyber physical systems, and the application of smart factory concepts in the inspection processes will allow to incorporate new benefits to the management of PTI stations, in addition to improving their effectiveness and efficiency. Regarding 2016 data, more than 19.5 million of vehicles were inspected in Spain and almost 24 million of defects were detected. Also, the total number of vehicles has increased about a 3.6%, but inspections have been increasing more than 5%. Taking into account the number of items to verify, the use of Industry 4.0 theologies, such as Big Data, is highly recommended. In addition, since 2013, Spanish DGT has launched Telematics’ Information Exchange with the objective to get telematics data recording of the PTI results. This make necessary to contemplate concepts based on Industry 4.0 for their management.