General Bases to Hierarchy Definition for Digital Assets in Railway Context

Defining the existence of a digital asset, integrating multiple platforms that represent its entities digitally, and simultaneously meeting the specific demands of the operational context of railway infrastructure systems represents an unresolved challenge for this industry. This study focuses on the search for commonalities, complementing the perspectives of the scientific community and research centers with real-world applications. From there, the development of a framework presented in our research emerges, capturing both the state of the art and practice, providing a starting point for the development of scientific discussions and the search for future models that offer an effective solution to the problem. The integration of maintenance management models with architectures for the development of digital twins in Industry 4.0, and the applied study of the railway industry itself, are part of the foundation of this study. Seeking to adhere to the principles already proposed for Industry 4.0, the scheme introduces new relationship factors that will be prototyped in the industry, especially in railway infrastructures, allowing for scalability and the digitization of processes as crucial as the criticality assessment for asset prioritization.