Metrics for availability analysis using a discrete event simulation method

Abstract

The system performance metric “availability” is a central concept with respect to the concerns of a plant’s operators and owners, yet it can be abstract enough to resist explanation at system levels. Hence, there is a need for a system-level metric more closely aligned with a plant’s (or, more generally, a system’s) raison d’être. Historically, availability of repairable systems – intrinsic, operational, or otherwise – has been defined as a ratio of times. This paper introduces a new concept of availability, called endogenous availability, defined in terms of a ratio of quantities of product yield. Endogenous availability can be evaluated using a discrete event simulation analysis methodology. A simulation example shows that endogenous availability reduces to conventional availability in a simple series system with different processing rates and without intermediate storage capacity, but diverges from conventional availability when storage capacity is progressively increased. It is shown that conventional availability tends to be conservative when a design includes features, such as in – process storage, that partially decouple the components of a larger system.