Availability analysis and performance optimization of a butter oil production system: a case study

Abstract

This paper proposes a method for time dependent system availability (TDSA) analysis of butter oil production system and the performance of the system is optimized using genetic algorithm. The mathematical formulation of the system based on Markov birth–death process is carried out and first order Chapman–Kolmogorov differential equations are developed based on the assumption that the failure and repair rate of each subsystem follows exponential distribution. The proposed method i.e. an adaptive step-size control Runge–Kutta method is used to compute TDSA and mean time between failures for butter oil production system of a dairy plant. The butter oil production system is a complex system and comprises of seven repairable subsystems. The results are presented and discussed with the plant personnel to adopt and practice suitable maintenance policies/strategies to enhance the productivity and quality of butter oil.