No fault found: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

Purpose: No fault found (NFF) in maintenance has been a frequently observed problem in industrial sectors, but very few academic contributions are devoted to reviewing and summarizing the related research. Considering the growing interest of academicians in NFF during the last decade, there is a critical need to examine theme evolution in this field, most influential authors, contemporary practices, research gaps and proposed solutions.

Design/methodology/approach: A portfolio of 169 articles published between 1982 and 2020 was collected from the Scopus database and was systematically analyzed using a two-tier method. First, the evolution, current state of literature and research clusters are identified using bibliometric techniques. Finally, the research clusters are studied to understand the literature's main themes and develop the future research agenda using content analysis.

Findings: The results indicate that publications on NFF are rising quickly in the last decade, especially after 2010. The previous NFF research primarily focuses on system design, fault diagnostics, reliability engineering, data management and human factors, but the criticality of economic and risk analysis has not been significantly represented.

Research limitations/implications: The study resulted in developing an inclusive framework and identifying six research clusters that will help in granular understanding, benefit the researchers, practitioners and policy formulators in NFF.

Originality/value: This study examines the NFF's current research direction and calls for further research in integrating NFF economics on its stakeholders like manufacturers, supply chain, customers and risk analysis during the product life cycle.