Investigation of maintenance performance for a gasification process unit using Weibull analysis

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate maintenance performance of a gasification process unit by identifying reliability, failure and hazard rate. The prediction on the number of preventive maintenance (PM) activities and size of labour are being analysed. Design/methodology/approach – The study collects maintenance data for 4,000 hours operation to perform Weibull analysis in order to determine two key factors which are beta shape factor, β and characteristic life, η. Findings – The results for estimation of failure, reliability and hazard rate show that the pump was most likely contributed to the biggest failure. On the other hand, reaction chamber was able to maintain the longest operation among other components. It is estimated that the total PM activities should be within 20-50 activities per month for whole processing plant. Meanwhile, the estimation of size of labour should be within the range of 60-130 numbers of workers per month for all components. Originality/value – The method of Weibull analysis for investigating current maintenance performance has been analysed using real case study data. The data collection is obtained from a typical gasification process unit.