Fuzzy-FMEA risk evaluation approach for LHD machine – A case study

Abstract

Improvement of productivity has become an important goal for mining industries in order to meet the expected targets of production and increased price competitiveness. Productivity can be improved in different ways. The effective utilization of men and machinery is one such way. Equipment is prone to numerous unexpected potential failures during its operation. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is one of the suitable techniques of reliability modeling used to investigate the failure behavior of a complex system. In conventional FMEA, the risk level of failures, a ranking of failures and prioritization of necessary actions is made on the basis of estimated Risk Priority Number (RPN). While this approach is easy and uncomplicated, there are a few flaws in acquiring the best approximation of the failure. The estimation of RPN is made by multiplying the Severity (S), Occurrence (O) and Detection (D) alone and irrespective of the degree of importance of each input. Hence, a new risk management approach known as the Fuzzy rule base interface system was proposed in this research in order to mitigate the failures. Fuzzy FMEA is designed in order to acquire the highest Fuzzy RPN value which will be used as the focus of enhancements to reduce the probability of occurrence of some kind of failure for a second time. This study focused on the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of underground mining machinery such as Load-Haul-Dumper (LHD). 16 potential risks of various sub-system breakdowns were identified in Fuzzy FMEA. The highest value of RPN 168 (for potential failure mode-F9) was obtained for the electrical subsystem (SSE), as was the highest FRPN 117 (F9). There is a difference between the RPN and FRPN values. The FRPN value is obtained from Fuzzy field generation with consideration of the degree of importance of the given input data. In addition, the recommendations were made based on the analysis to reduce the uneven occurrence of failures.