Health monitoring and structural reliability as a value chain

A value chain is defined as an end-to-end solution to a problem, with the beneficiary constituting one end of the chain and the enabling technologies (or parties) making up the rest of the chain. In this context, enabling technologies such as health monitoring, damage detection, and reliability are viewed as sequential components in a chain, with each continuing the chain while adding value to it, so that the aggregate value of the chain can be delivered to the ownership. This holistic view is taken to expose a current imbalance in technology development, and the weak link corresponds to a lack of information that relates technology-investment costs to financial benefits for the owner. Structural reliability, useful life expectancy, and other information of this genre ore seen to be keeping the full value of the chain from being realized and appreciated by the ownership. An example of what the desired linkage may be comes from aerospace and mechanical engineering. In the form of so-called symptom-based reliability technology, reliability is quantified for existing structures based on actual usage instead of natural age and measured symptoms instead of idealized model prediction. Hence it is also compatible with current health-monitoring and damage-detection developments (enabling technologies of the value chain). Since the value of the chain is only as (in)effective as its weakest link, it is argued that future research effort should stress balanced development throughout the chain.