Reliability

Probability that the product continues to

meet the specification over a given time
period subject to given environmental
conditions

Factors Influencing Reliability

Quality

Temperature
Environment
Stress
Complexity

Modifying Factors

EXPECTED

STANDARD

Design for Reliability

Element/component

selection

De-rating
Environment
Minimum complexity
Redundancy
Diversity
Calculation of overall system reliability

Design Tools for Reliable Products

FTA Fault Tree Analysis
PFMEA Potential Failure Mode
& Effect Analysis

Reliability in Maintenance
Preventive Maintenance
Total Productive Maintenance
Reliability Centred Maintenance

Evolution of Maintenance Practices

Pre 1950 - Breakdown Maintenance
1950s 1970s - Preventive Maintenance
1980 onwards - Condition Based or Predictive
Maintenance

Reliability Centred Maintenance

Aims to plan scheduled preventive

maintenance effectively and
efficiently

Objectives

To reflect on the role of maintenance

To appreciate use of models to
optimise preventive maintenance
To understand methodology
underpinning Reliability Centred
Maintenance (RCM)
To assess uses and limitations of
maintenance programmes in practice

Why Maintain Equipment?

Maintenance Impact on Reliability?

Failure Rate
Desired impact
of maintenance

Time

How Maintain Equipment?

Maintenance tasks
action(s) required to achieve a desired
outcome which restores an item to (or
maintains and an item in) serviceable
condition

Maintenance programme
methods, procedures and resources
required for sustaining the support of an
item throughout its life cycle

Maintenance
Preventive

Corrective

Activities on non-failed
items to avoid or reduce
probability of failure

Diagnosis
and repair as
soon as failure
occurs

Time/cycle based

On-Condition monitoring

To restore non-failed
item at scheduled
time e.g. age,
routine servicing

To restore non-failed
item when condition
assessment fails
defined acceptance
criteria

Total Lifetime Operating Cost

= INITIAL COST(purchase,delivery,installation,commissioning)
+ RUNNING COST OVER LIFETIME(fuel,energy,services)
+ COST OF FAILURES AND MAINTENANCE OVER LIFETIME

- NET SALVAGE VALUE

Net Salvage Value = Salvage Value - Disposal Cost

Costs

Total Costs
PM Costs

Failure Costs

Optimum
level of PM

Amount of PM

Components of Downtime
Downtime
Passive
(a)
realisation

Active
(b)
access

(b)

Active

Passive

Active

(c)
diagnosis

(d)
logistics

(e)
repair/replace

(c)

Repair time

(e)

(f)

Active
(f)
check

Cost Components of Downtime

Materials Cost
Repair Labour Cost
Availability Cost with
breakdown
preventive replacement
on-condition replacement
standby redundancy

Maintenance Options

Corrective or breakdown
Preventive
Maintenance or replacement by time or
cycle
On-condition with periodic testing or
continuous monitoring
Standby with routine testing for unrevealed
faults

Preventive Maintenance
Theory
Predict when failure is going to occur and
carry out preventive repair or replacement
prior to failure

Preventive Maintenance Performance Measures

MTTF - Mean Time to Failure

MTBF - Mean Time Between Failures

MTBF - Mean time between failures

Device
number

Down

1
2
3

Up
Up

Up

TD1

Down

TD3
Down

Up

TD2

Up
Up

Up

TD4
Down

Up

Down

Up

Up

Test time T

TDNF

3
4
j

TDj
Down

Failure
number

Up

NF

Probability
of failure

Safe life Economic

limit
life limit

Average age
at failure

Service age

Cumulative
percent
failure
100
75
50
25

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Time (hours)

Product life characteristics curve

(bathtub)

Failure
Rate

Early
life

Wear out

Useful life

Time

Analytical Tools in Reliability Engineering

Weibull Failure Rate Model

Constant Failure Rate Model

Preventive Maintenance
Practice
A wide range of failure patterns exist
and it is difficult to predict the age at
which failure will occur - 90% of items
fail randomly

4%

2%

5%

7%

14%

68%

On Condition Maintenance
Theory
Monitor equipment and detect early
signs of failure then carry out
preventive maintenance prior to failure

On Condition Maintenance
Problem
There must be a detectable warning sign
of incipient failure - the potential failure
point
There must be sufficient time interval to
carry out repair before failure - potential
failure interval
The failure time must be reasonably
predictable

Condition
Potential failure
interval
(PFI)

Potential
failure

Functional
failure

Time

Logistics
(d)

Active
maintenance
(b)+(e)+(f)

Continuous Condition Monitoring

Used when:
PFI small - days , hours
Cost due to lost availability high
Temperature -bearings, lubricating oil
Strain - pressure vessels, boilers
Vibration - pumps, compressors
Pressure - oil supply systems
Differential pressure - filters
Electric current - motors, pumps

Standby Maintenance

Active redundancy
Standby redundancy
Testing

Suitability of PM tasks
Task must be technically applicable
and
Task must be worthwhile

Benefit of On-Condition
Monitoring
Removing components of downtime
reduces availability related costs

Maintenance Programmes

Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM)

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
Breakdown Maintenance

RCM Definition 1 (MSG)

A disciplined logic or methodology used to
identify PM tasks to realise the inherent
reliability of equipment at least expenditure
of resources

RCM Definition 2 (IEC)

A method for establishing a scheduled PM
programme which will efficiently and
effectively achieve the inherent reliability
and safety levels of equipment and
structures

History of RCM

1967 - Boeing 747 purchasers, produced

Maintenance Steering Group handbook
(MSG-1)
1969 - FAA approval of MSG-1
1970 - MSG-2 for DC10, L1011
1983 - MSG-3 for B757, B767
1984 - Electric Power Research Industry
1986 - MIL-STD-2173 for Naval Aircraft,
Weapons and Support Equipment

RCM Basic Concepts

Identifies important functions and

consequences for safety, operations and
economy of items
Identifies dominant failure modes through
feedback of operating experience
Identifies applicable and effective PM
tasks
Documents decision-making process
Provides living maintenance programme

System operating
requirements
Functional
analysis
FMEA etc

Maintenance
task selection

Critical
items

PM
justified?
System
re-design

System
evaluation

PM
programme

Maintenance Task Selection

Could you develop a decision strategy

for selecting between different types of
maintenance tasks?

Reported Benefits of RCM

RCM provides a rational basis for

maintenance planning
RCM aims to optimise maintenance
costs for a given reliability level
RCM optimises process resources and
organisation
RCM is a proven approach

Issues-Applying RCM in Practice

Systematic application of RCM involved

creation of detailed databases and
maintenance schedules
Close co-ordination is required between
operations and engineering
maintenance personnel for access
Resource planning to reduce delays is
often done with software systems
designed to create valid maintenance
plans