Optimal Preventive Maintenance Frequency in Redundant Systems

Abstract

AbstractThe right frequency of preventive maintenance is essential for production availability with adequate safety and economic levels. The optimal preventive maintenance intervals are difficult to identify as production systems are becoming complex by combining electro-electronic and mechanical systems with large quantities. High rates of preventive maintenance boost quality costs, low availability, and high possibility of maintenance failures. Otherwise, it could happen an increase in unscheduled downtime and high costs by losing the production. The development of algorithms to evaluate the maintenance program performance becomes a challenge to validate when it includes continuous, discrete, and stochastic models. This paper proposes an approach to stochastic model checking for identifying the optimum frequency of preventive maintenance by mechanical equipment, simulated and verified through a network of timed automata. A case study was adopted to illustrate the effectiveness of the solution. It is useful to evaluate the optimal preventive maintenance frequency in similar circumstances.KeywordsReliabilityPreventive maintenanceStochastic model checker