Design-for-maintenance of digital assets

There has been an increasing trend towards digital representation-of physic al assets such as simulating design prototypes, layout infrastructures and process dynamics. We term such representations digital assets-and present a design-for-maintenance framework for such assets. A shift in the maintenan ce strategy of digital assets is essential due to the nature of these asset s. Maintenance of digital asset involves preserving all the features of the asset in the midst of computer hardware and software changes. The key is t o design self-maintaining and self-preserving digital assets that are platf orm independent and are easy to use locally as well as in a network environ ment The network programming language Java is used to illustrate our design -for-maintenance framework. A comparison is made between physical and digit al asset maintenance characteristics and issues. Our framework is compared with existing frameworks, such as Standards for the Exchange of Product Mod el Data (STEP). Significance: Minimizing the cost and time spent to maintain digital assets are essential components for an efficient software application A design-fo r-maintenance framework addresses these issues with self-preserving, self-m aintaining digital assets, which are platform independent in nature.