The human response time to events in a manufacturing environment depends both on the available skills and competencies of technical staff but also on the extent to which actionable and task-relevant content is readily available when and where is needed. Relevance itself is determined by the task situation context, which in turn is influenced by many factors. This paper presents the development of a context-aware mobile support system for personalised assistance in industrial environments. Combining the individual strengths of learning and content management systems with the ubiquity of delivering relevant content to users carrying NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled mobile devices, the system aims at both enhancing personnel competences as well as their work efficiency. The developed solution is customised to serve an industrial maintenance-support application scenario, wherein the relevant context is determined through location and asset identification, as well as through task and user profiling, offering practical on the spot mobile support.

Industrial Maintenance is seeking to enhance the efficiency of asset usage according to multiple criteria and constraints. Its implementation is facilitated by the application of a range of enabling technologies, termed in this context as e-Maintenance. Integrated e-Maintenance solutions can support a multitude of industrial maintenance procedures, from toplevel management to low-level machinery technical issues. The level of complexity in these procedures varies greatly and requires a multidisciplinary level of skills from the involved personnel. Therefore, e-Maintenance applications can benefit from incorporating e-Learning and e-Support solutions. E-Learning can be an effective training method for maintenance, by providing cost effective, location-independent and easily updated training content. E-Support can be employed to provide technical staff with contextualized information and services in order to aid them with their assigned tasks. The WelCOM e-Maintenance architecture offers a framework that combines a networked infrastructure of intelligent wireless sensors, and a toolset of maintenance support services, linked to a CMMS. In this setting, one of the objectives is to integrate e-Learning in the form of web-based training modules and e-Support, by providing ubiquitous help through mobile devices to technical staff. The web-based learning is tailored to condition monitoring tasks, whereas the e-Support is planned to include instructions, videos, manuals or technical reports, all specially formatted to be delivered by a mobile device (tablet), exploiting its graphic, storage and networking capabilities. In this way, we aim for a smooth acceptance of the new e-Maintenance system, by providing easily accessible and context-depended support for maintenance personnel.

Abstract. Mobile learning is a powerful addition to the toolset offered by eLearning solutions. It can extend current e-Learning benefits to provide support and training everywhere, anytime and to anyone registered to have access and with affordable costs. Mobile devices with substantial computational, networking and storage capabilities are ubiquitous today. However, attempts to employ them in training are mostly addressing educational needs of end users with existing competencies in computing, such as students. We propose the development of a specially built mobile learning solution with the aim to provide e-Support to technicians within an e-Maintenance framework. This system will be backed and collaborate with a Learning Management System platform in order to provide on the spot aid and adequate supporting content to maintenance personnel.