SOME CRITICAL STUDIES IN MAINTENANCE ENGINEERING MODELING AND ANALYSIS

Abstract

Effective and efficient maintenance affects asset optimization by improving equipment s newlineavailability and aims to improve service to customers. Modeling and analysis plays an newlineimportant role in achieving this objective. newlineThis thesis presents an integrated decision model to identify feasibility for preventive newlinemaintenance (PM) with optimal schedules. This system uses the equations pertaining to newlineavailability, maintenance cost rate and revenue earning rate to check if PM is feasible and newlinehence attractive as compared to breakdown maintenance, and if so, the optimal schedule newlineperiod for PM is determined. To this effect a system of graphical aid is developed. The newlinesystem is applied to test cases and the utility of the tool is explained through stepwise newlineprocedure and flow chart with appropriate results and discussions. PM has been one of the newlinemajor thrust areas looked upon in today s competitive industrial scenario. However, there newlineare certain fundamental setbacks in the frequency with which PM is to be performed. In newlinemaintenance engineering, when we determine the optimal schedule for PM, the analytical newlinetools normally fail due to the involvement of the transcendental expressions, randomness newlinein the system and the stochastic behavior of the situation. Simulated Annealing technique newlineis found to be suitable in such cases. Simulated Annealing also offers the advantage of newlinereducing the possibility of getting trapped in local optima. This thesis presents use of newlineSimulated Annealing to arrive at an optimal schedule for PM, specifically for newlinedeteriorating systems. The results obtained from Simulated Annealing are compared with newlinethose obtained using traditional method and statistically assessed for its effectiveness. It is newlineobserved that Simulated Annealing is a feasible alternative in arriving at decisions newlineregarding the global optimal schedules for PM of degradable systems. newlineMaintenance engineering involves random behavior of the systems with varying time. newline