Practical Demonstration of a Hybrid Model for Optimising the Reliability, Risk, and Maintenance of Rolling Stock Subsystem

Abstract

Railway transport system (RTS) failures exert enormous strain on end-users and operators owing to in-service reliability failure. Despite the extensive research on improving the reliability of RTS, such as signalling, tracks, and infrastructure, few attempts have been made to develop an effective optimisation model for improving the reliability, and maintenance of rolling stock subsystems. In this paper, a new hybrid model that integrates reliability, risk, and maintenance techniques is proposed to facilitate engineering failure and asset management decision analysis. The upstream segment of the model consists of risk and reliability techniques for bottom-up and top-down failure analysis using failure mode effects and criticality analysis and fault tree analysis, respectively. The downstream segment consists of a (1) decision-making grid (DMG) for the appropriate allocation of maintenance strategies using a decision map and (2) group decision-making analysis for selecting appropriate improvement options for subsystems allocated to the worst region of the DMG map using the multi-criteria pairwise comparison features of the analytical hierarchy process. The hybrid model was illustrated through a case study for replacing an unreliable pneumatic brake unit (PBU) using operational data from a UK-based train operator where the frequency of failures and delay minutes exceeded the operator’s original target by 300% and 900%, respectively. The results indicate that the novel hybrid model can effectively analyse and identify a new PBU subsystem that meets the operator’s reliability, risk, and maintenance requirements.