A New Method for Reliability Centered Maintenance Improvement 1999-01-3364

The application of reliability criteria in the maintenance management is assuming high relevance in the industrial field in consideration of the savings obtained by them in the management costs conjugated with an availability and reliability improvement.

In this frame, ENEA (an Italian Research Institute) developed, in collaboration with some European companies (ATC, ANSALDO, SIVECO France and IIS sa) and within a Project financed by the European Commission (Contract No BRPR - CT96-0211), a software tool to be applied for the improvement of the maintenance planning of each type of industrial system on the basis of reliability and costs criteria.

The developed software is constituted by different computer methods and devices interactively connected which allow the storing of historical information on the components constituting the equipments and the processing, on its basis, of reliability data which are used for the definition and improvement of the maintenance strategies that must be applied on each single component. Among those methods, a simulation reliability analysis code based on Montecarlo techniques allows a realistic simulation of each type of complex system and the evaluation of its reliability, availability and management costs. By its iterative application the best management configuration of the system may be found. Since maintenance is a critical parameter in the lean manufacturing improvement, the sw tool herewith described may be profitably applied in such field.

The main aim of the paper is a short description of the developed method and the reporting of the most meaningful results obtained by its application with particular reference to the manufacturer industry.