Patent ID: 8086477

Claim:
A system for creating a maintenance plan for physical components in an installation, comprising: a plurality of components comprising main components and sub-components, wherein the main components are intelligent automation components for controlling a technical installation and the sub-components are mechanical components, each main component containing maintenance information regarding the respective main component stored directly in the main component's memory, and for each main component that is further connected to a sub-component, also containing maintenance information for the sub-component stored directly in the main component's memory, wherein the intelligent automation components provide the maintenance information online via Internet such that the maintenance information is accessible on-site as well as off-site of the technical installation; a project planning device of an engineering system in communication across a communication network with the main components, the project planning device having stored in memory therein hierarchical information comprising an installation structure for the plurality of components in the installation; a maintenance planning device for generating a maintenance plan for the installation by receiving the maintenance information from the intelligent automation components, wherein the intelligent automation components transmit the maintenance information via Internet or Ethernet or TCP/IP or Profinet to the maintenance planning device, and combining the maintenance information with the hierarchical information from the project planning device to create the maintenance plan, wherein the maintenance planning device determines optimum maintenance cycles from the maintenance information, and wherein the maintenance planning device is adapted to update the maintenance plan after a component is replaced or added to the installation.