Management Of Maintenance Activities Research Articles

An asset management modelling framework for wind turbine blades considering monitoring system reliability

By incorporating information about asset condition from a monitoring system, engineers can utilize asset management models to manage maintenance activities on wind turbine blades throughout their lifespan. This can lower operating and maintenance costs and increase the life of the blades. The asset management model relies on the monitoring system as a source of information, however, commonly the reliability of the monitoring system is not considered. This paper presents a wind turbine blade asset management Petri net (PN) model that covers the blade asset management process, including degradation, inspection, condition monitoring (CM), and maintenance processes. The paper proposes two contributions. Firstly, while taking into account detailed industry guidelines, the developed model can forecast the future blade condition for a given asset management strategy. Secondly, it investigates the impact of the reliability of the monitoring system on the asset management modelling results. With the aid of the developed model, the number of repair actions and probability distributions of blade condition discovery time are obtained. In addition, the PN gives an indication of how misreporting (underestimation and overestimation) occurs and the extent of the misreporting. The simulation results illustrate the degree of uncertainty introduced into the monitoring results by the reliability of the monitoring system and, consequently, the extent to which this factor influences the maintenance strategies. The proposed model can be used to support asset management decisions when monitoring system performance degrades.

Blockchain technology applications in maintaining heritage buildings

Preservation of cultural heritage in the face of human and natural disasters, as well as improper maintenance practices, is a crucial endeavor that must be undertaken throughout the lifespan of heritage buildings. In order to maximize the value derived from these assets and strike a harmonious balance between accurate documentation and performance optimization, asset management strategies have been employed. In recent years, the advent of innovative methodologies such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and laser scanning has opened new possibilities for their application in various contexts. However, successful implementation of these methodologies faces a range of challenges, including limited knowledge, inexperienced teams, and reluctance to embrace change on the part of administrators. To address these obstacles and enhance asset management practices, the integration of BIM, Chatbot, and Blockchain methodology has emerged as a viable solution. This methodology not only facilitates the improvement of data security and user data capture but also streamlines the process of updating BIM models. In this research, we propose a data-driven Chatbot framework based on Blockchain, specifically designed to manage maintenance activities through the utilization of BIM. The proposed framework serves as a valuable tool for government authorities and asset managers seeking to adopt BIM for the preservation of heritage buildings. Comprising three key components – the BIM model, the Blockchain model, and the Chatbot model – the framework offers comprehensive support. The BIM model encompasses all relevant information pertaining to the management of the heritage building, while the Chatbot model replicates human interaction through text-based communication. Users can access up-to-date BIM data by posing predefined questions to the Chatbot. On the other hand, the Blockchain model serves as a secure and immutable record-keeping system, validating and verifying user updates, thereby fostering trust among stakeholders. This proposed model empowers asset stakeholders to request and update asset information via a trusted and reliable channel. To showcase the capabilities of the framework, we present a real-world case study centered on the Omar Toson Palace in Cairo, Egypt. Through this case study, we demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of our proposed framework in meeting the challenges associated with heritage building preservation.

Analisis Manajemen Pemeliharaan Gedung Kantor (Studi Kasus PT AST)

Buildings that support office activity need to be well maintained. Without the maintenance, the building's structure function will suffer a decline over time. This study aims to identify the maintenance management activities of the building, the building maintenance schedule and the obstacles also the solutions in the maintenance of the office building at PT AST. It uses a qualitative descriptive approach by describe and analyze the problems found. Qualitative research is based on primary and secondary data. Primary data in the study are obtained by observation, interview, and documentation, while secondary data are obtained through books, previous studies, and research related articles. According to the study, PT AST has been regularly and frequently maintained the building, but the maintenance activities have not been optimal. This can be seen from the difficult access of office repository and some office machines scheduled for delay in maintenance. It would be better if PT AST was able to provide some items replacement to anticipate the damage and also work with third party procurement to perform repairs on a damaged items or chamber if needed.

Preventive Maintenance: Some Operations and Technology Related Practices at a Malaysian Oil and Gas Firm

The effectiveness of a maintenance management system can be measured by the way a function has achieved its intended objectives and generally evaluated based on the quality of the product or service provided, from the perspective of the user. The issues of high casualties in terms of personnel, millions of dollars in losses due to the unexpected shutdown of operations, environmental threats and the impact on the country's income should be addressed. Malaysian Oil and Gas Firm’s maintenance system efficiency practices, technology availability, the selection of suppliers, the influence of preventive maintenance on company performance and the rationale for choosing PM for downstream activities were considered in the interest of the nation. The primary purpose of this study is to use a qualitative methodology to examine PM procedures at a Malaysian oil and gas firm. The oil and gas sector is commonly linked with high-risk, cutting-edge technology projects that can have devastating economic and ecological effects if anything goes wrong. The study utilized the semi-structured interview with 10 identified oil and gas maintenance management personnels such as Managers, Supervisors and Staffs who are attached to Maintenance Department as the ‘gatekeepers’ as they are the one who are directly involved directly in maintenance management activities as well as preparing the reports and data with regards oil and gas companies maintenance management system used for the study. The result from the study stated that the personnel involved in maintenance activities appreciate the practices utilized however with the new methods introduced, the study also proposed, appropriate maintenance implementation as well as the involvement of several parties in aspects of planning and formulating maintenance policy up to the implementation stage in the oil and gas operators’ operation. The study can provide significant implications for theoretical, methodology and management involvement in terms of preventive maintenance contribution to organizational performance. This study analysed the issue raised in the implementation of preventative maintenance, specifically in Turnaround Maintenance in oil and gas company.

MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF HEP POWER PLANTS

Asset maintenance in power utilities is the key component of management. To this end HEP launched a project for the introduction of a maintenance management system (MMS) in its daughter companies engaging in the generation of electricity and in the generation and distribution of heat. The purpose of the MMS project was to set up a single management system the for technical systems of these facilities and to support it by implementing a specialised IT system. The paper describes the role of such systems in managing the operations of power utilities. It also shows the basic modules and functionalities in the MMS software for managing maintenance activities and logistic functions of managing inventories and procurement, the course of its introduction, and the performance in HEP’s power and heat plants.

Blockchain Design with Optimal Maintenance Planning

Rapid advancement of data management and sharing technology has urged organizations to develop effective maintenance management systems. This research, therefore, proposes and implements an Electronic Repair Records (ERR) system for the blockchain of maintenance planning and management. In ERR, this research develops two optimization models for scheduling and sequencing failure repairs from different types over multiple periods. Each failure repair is treated as a block, for which the data, current hash, and previous hash are obtained from failure repair parameters, resources availability information, and the optimal values of the start and finish times of the assigned failure repairs. The scheduling model assigns failure repairs to technicians and in maintenance shops on each scheduling period at a minimal total cost of delay, undertime, and overtime costs, while the sequencing model sequences the assigned failure repairs at minimal total overtime costs and minimum total repair start times. Once the blocks are confirmed, the blockchain is then shared through an electronic network among all maintenance departments. The developed ERR system was implemented to manage the repairs of 36 failures from different failures in six maintenance shops over a period of three days. The results showed that this system is found to be effective in managing optimal repairs and efficient in improving the utilization of available resources in maintenance shops. These advantages may result in significant savings in maintenance costs and better utilization of resources. In conclusion, the developed ERR system including the optimization models can provide in real-time assistance and de-centralized technology to planning engineers when managing maintenance activities over multiple periods in a wide range of business applications.

Exploring New Computational Strategies for Managing Maintenance Activities of Airport Pavement Systems

AbstractIn this paper, the optimization of the maintenance management problem regarding airport pavements is addressed by developing a series of fast computational procedures whose rationales pursue both practical and economical objectives. Particularly, the study involves the design of five new heuristic algorithms replicating different management strategies that can be undertaken by the airport managers in a certain time horizon for reducing the pavement maintenance costs while considering the impact on the service level of the airport. Each algorithm works on the basis of a preliminary computational framework that has a twofold scope: (i) selecting the pavement portions to be maintained during the provided time horizon. (ii) using a K-means method based on three well-known performance indicators, which, namely, are Residual Life (RL), International Roughness Index (IRI) and Pavement Condition Index (PCI), to group the selected portions into homogenous clusters named work-zones. To evaluate the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed optimization algorithms in coping with the maintenance programming problem under investigation, an extended design of experiments based on international airport regulations has been arranged. The obtained numerical results revealed that no single strategy can be selected as the most performing in terms of cost and quality conditions of the pavements. To make robust the numerical results, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to evaluate the influence of the total cost of maintenance on runway length and number of sections. However, the results obtained in this study provide a series of managerial implications, further expanding the research contribution.

A State-of-the-Art Review of Bridge Inspection Planning: Current Situation and Future Needs

Inspections are important to ensuring adequate safety and performance of a bridge throughout its service life. Bridge inspections are highly connected with maintenance decisions and can help in managing maintenance activities while maintaining a reliable bridge network. Routine inspections are the most common type of highway bridge inspections in the United States. The National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS) requires that, for almost all bridges, a routine inspection should be conducted at least every 24 months. However, limitations of current bridge inspection practices impact the quality of information provided about bridge conditions and the subsequent decisions made based on that information. Much research in the field of bridge inspection planning has been conducted to assist bridge inspectors in the inspection planning process and improving routine inspections. Accordingly, the goal of this study is to provide an overview on current bridge inspection practices in the United States and conduct a systematic literature review on innovations in the field bridge inspections planning while investigating research gaps and future needs. This paper provides a background on the history of bridge inspection in the United States, including current bridge inspection practices and their limitations and analyzes the connections between nondestructive evaluation techniques, deterioration models, and bridge inspection management. The primary emphasis of the paper is a thorough analysis of research proposing and investigating different methodologies for inspection planning and scheduling. Studies were analyzed and categorized into three main types of inspection planning approaches, based on: reliability, risk-analysis, and optimization approaches. The study revealed gaps and limitations in the current proposed techniques for inspection planning. The findings of this review will help in characterizing the current state of bridge inspection programs and future research needs to enhance inspection programs and reduce the gap between inspection practice and research.

Improving maintenance management practices on green building projects

Purpose The improper maintenance affects the performance of management practices for Green Building (GB) in Malaysia. This is due to the issues of lack of GB knowledge and competency for maintenance activities in GB projects. However, only a few researchers have investigated maintenance within the GBs. This may be due to industry’s lack of awareness concerning the currently existing maintenance problems and their causes. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This paper intends to develop a new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based approach for managing maintenance in GB schemes. As a precursor to this work, the current maintenance management activities, ICT tools and techniques are reviewed and explored in such projects to gather processes and information database of maintenance and management. Findings The findings reveal the need for more sophisticated maintenance management solutions that accord with the needs of GB schemes to manage quality and reduce associated defects. Originality/value The paper concludes by presenting a research framework for developing such a system in the future. It is also suggested that further research into maintenance of GB should consider issues in terms of concern for lifecycle assessment and sustainability.

A fuzzy decision support system for managing maintenance activities of critical components in manufacturing systems

Management of critical components in manufacturing systems aims at managing components with very low reliability or the highest risk which can cause disruptions in manufacturing. This study presents a method for identifying critical components and a decision support tool for managing maintenance activities of critical components in manufacturing systems. Unlike the traditional reliability function, the proposed method uses the duty cycle, utilization rate of capacity, safety stock effect, and redundancy effect. It also has the ability to calculate some of the costs associated with the reliability and maintenance. In addition to the proposed method, an expert system as a decision support tool has also been proposed to assist in managing maintenance activities of critical components. The proposed method and the developed decision support system have been tested with a real data set taken from an industrial company and a randomly generated data set. The results have shown that the proposed method has a more realistic impact on component reliability compared to the traditional reliability function. The experimental results have validated the credibility of the proposed decision support system to manage maintenance activities of critical components. Besides, two comparison tables have shown that the proposed decision support system outperforms some approaches such as ANN, FMEA, FMECA, and AHP.

Pembuatan Program Aplikasi Pemeliharaan Mesin Terjadual Di Laboratorium Mekanik Polman Negeri Bangka Belitung

Every company wants all its equipment or machinery operating in optimum condition, so that the necessary maintenance activities to fulfill that desire. Management of maintenance activities to be hard to do when the equipment or machines owned by increasingly numerous and complex, and activities increase the number of machines or equipment routinely performed. Therefore needed a system to manage maintenance activities quickly, especially in administration of maintenance of machine or equipment are handled. This program has the ability to manage personal data engines, machinery or equipment maintenance scheduling, managing work instruction sheet, a history of the machine, the data parts, data managing maintenance activities, preventive maintenance and expense reports. System maintenance is made by using a computer-based information system maintenance. In making the program used Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 and used for the purpose of Microsoft Access database.

Desarrollo de software para la gestión del mantenimiento en los laboratorios de la I.U. Pascual Bravo

La importancia de las acciones de mantenimiento en el sector de bienes y servicios para garantizar la disponibilidad y confiabilidad necesaria en los activos, ha generado la necesidad de tener herramientas que mejoren la administración de los departamentos de mantenimiento; es por esto que los Sistemas Computarizados para la Gestión del Mantenimiento (CMMS) aparecen para contribuir con la planeación, ejecución y control de las actividades en tales departamentos, haciendo que los datos obtenidos se conviertan en información relevante para la toma de decisiones para mejoramiento continuo. Para la I.U. Pascual Bravo, institución de educación superior con laboratorios para la prestación de servicios educativos y productivos, es fundamental trabajar en la conservación y seguridad de sus activos a través de la gestión del mantenimiento; por esto, se genera la necesidad de desarrollar un CMMS adaptado a las características de los activos de los diferentes laboratorios de la Facultad de Ingeniería, para centralizar la información de mantenimiento. En el presente artículo se revisa la evolución y desarrollo de los CMMS y se describe el diseño y la funcionalidad de SIMA, Sistema de Información de Mantenimiento, aplicación para centralizar la gestión del mantenimiento de los equipos de los laboratorios de la Facultad de Ingeniería. Con este módulo se pretende contribuir con la creación de cultura de mantenimiento, apoyando el correcto registro de la información para optimizar tanto las actividades y los recursos disponibles.

Maintenance business model: a concept for driving performance improvement

Maintenance function within manufacturing companies should be seen as a source of added-value. Indeed, improvements of maintenance performance have an effect also on the whole company's performance: this integrated view may be supported by the concept of maintenance business model (MBM). This paper proposes a framework including MBM as an intermediate link between the formulation and the execution of maintenance strategy. The MBM can be used as a means for analysing and improving maintenance management activities in order to provide the highest value to the stakeholders of maintenance function.

Textual meta-analysis of maintenance management's knowledge assets

Maintenance management activities include identifying, creating and storing knowledge assets. The knowledge assets are either documented/codified or undocumented/non-codified. In order to utilise the accumulated knowledge assets in the operational, tactical and strategic layers, documented knowledge should be meta-analysed. Meta-analysis is to discover the strength of the relationship between certain variables by means of automatic or semi-automatic algorithms. Meta-analysis has three methods: (1) statistical; (2) mathematical; and (3) textual. In this paper, the textual meta-analysis of maintenance management’s knowledge assets is examined. In particular, the objective is to develop a virtual application for finding the relationship between three classes of text entities such as machines, practitioners and maintenance operations by means of technical implementation of the concept for the imitation of the mental ability of word association (CIMAWA). In addition, the virtual application is designed to be integrated as an add-on in the framework of computerised maintenance management information system (CMMIS).

Ontology-based framework for maintenance activity analysis and support: a case study for petroleum plant

In most modern production plants, there has been increased implementation of effective plant maintenance management systems. In the last decade, a large number of studies have been conducted and a wide array of software packages has been developed for optimizing and managing plant maintenance activities. The main focus of most of these studies and systems is to manage the plant maintenance costs at high level management. instead of improving the maintenance activities at the plant elements. These systems have been successful in providing valuable assistance to plant management to manage maintenance activities at a high level. However, an effective plant maintenance analysis module concerning plant maintenance components is still in demand in many production plants. It is also vitally important to provide decision support to stakeholders for the efficient and effective maintenance of the production process. This paper presents an analytical framework that provide the stakeholders the flexibility in making maintenance decisions based on the information collected through plant monitoring process and from the plant maintenance work order history. In our previous work, we designed and implemented two stages of our proposed framework using ontology and business rules which allows to define the logical structure and maintenance operation of a production plant with the objective of improving the plant maintenance activities. To include maintenance benchmark, maintenance analyser dashboard and maintenance decision support components, we have extended the ontology and the framework to ensure that decision makers have sufficient knowledge to make the right decision at the right time. The proposed extended framework is designed, implemented and evaluated using an example petroleum production plant as a case study.

Feasibility of adopting in‐and‐out‐sourcing

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to find the “effect of economic value of maintenance cost on the optimum selection of one alternative (either out‐or‐in‐sourcing) through the analysis of a case study of two projects: an existing on‐going project and a proposed bidding project”. In particular, the research is conducted to help PetroCost for Engineering Investment and Construction Company to take a decision on whether to have its own earth moving fleet (and hence maintain it) or rent one including the maintenance service as part of the outsourcing contract.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses a case study approach whereby cost data and information are collected from two case projects, then presented and analyzed. Economic tools (measures of worth) and excel software were used in the first project, where payback period method and break‐even analysis are used in the second project. The two projects were considered as an integrated (complementary) case study, so different measures were applied to each project, although the three measures could be applied, implicitly, to each of them. The payback method is used as a quick screening method to determine, approximately, how long the project takes to recover the invested outlays. If the period is shorter than the period of time desired by the investor, then a further thorough analyses, rate of return and break‐even, are recommended to be undertaken. Two of the authors were consultants to the study, where the third was the technical manager of the company (PetroCost).FindingsThe results obtained from the analysis of the first case project (existing on‐going project) showed a saving of SDG717,484.31, while the second case study (bidding) showed a saving of 33.4 percent over the out‐sourcing cost, and a break‐even point of 27 days, one third of the recommended project life. Both cases are in favor of having their own trucks while conducting in‐house maintenance.Practical implicationsThe traditional in‐house approach is considered by many firms as the best maintenance strategy. Nevertheless, out‐sourcing becomes a recognized challenging competing option, worldwide. However, out‐sourcing option not widely practiced in Sudan. The decision criteria presented in this paper provides a useful management tool for selecting the appropriate maintenance organization strategy. Although the criteria is applied for a truck fleet case in a construction firm, but it can be extended to the management of maintenance activities in the growing oil and associated industries in the country, besides the existing ones, where the skills' shortage of qualified maintenance personnel is evident.Originality/valueMuch of previous and current research on outsourcing focuses on managing outsourcing projects and evaluating ex post decisions' consequences (e.g. output measurability) more than addressing early planning and feasibility study stages. Hence, the paper is relevant in this respect and intended to contribute to the practice of maintenance management.

Active correlation technology applied to maintenance program based on voltage sags control

This paper presents an Active Correlation Technology (ACT) for voltage sag detection and control. ACT is a conceptual architecture developed by IBM and can be successfully implemented to manage maintenance activities of distribution networks. As an instrument, maintenance clearly impacts on system reliability and quality of supply, i.e., very limited maintenance will result in an excessive number of costly failures and poor system performance, and therefore, reliability and quality of supply are degraded; done often, both reliability and quality of supply may improve but the cost of maintenance will sharply increase. Efficient maintenance schemes consider condition monitoring and maintenance activities are performed when a threshold pattern is violated. In this paper, a correlation engine is proposed to set voltage sag threshold patterns to detect abnormal sag incidence on MV feeders and trigger alarms to indicate the need for maintenance activities. The central ideas are validated with records obtained from a medium voltage circuit operated by one of the distribution divisions of the Mexican utility.

Map support of winter road maintenance

The aim of this paper is to present road weather information system and map sources which can be used by winter maintenance system operator to clarify his perception of road meteorological situation in order to be able to take well-founded decision while managing maintenance activities. Presently the so-called status map showing current warnings from road weather stations is the principal map in winter maintenance. In its new version displaying the map of any feature measured by outstations as well as layer handling and zooming will be available. Map outputs of the model forecasting the road condition and temperature are described in the last chapter.

Maintenance management in nanotech-environment: the challenges ahead

The recently introduced high-tech based systems in our technological world induced a much-revolutionised kind of industrial maintenance concept. However, the task became relatively manageable owing to the fast evolution of the tools like computerised maintenance management system (CMMS). So far as the nanotechnology-based developments are concerned, the maintenance tasks associated with the newer technologies would pose, perhaps altogether some new kind of challenges to the future maintenance engineers due to the very nature of the size and shape of the devices and systems to be handled. Present paper made an attempt to explore how the presently ongoing maintenance management activities might get affected under the impact of the nanotechnological developments of tomorrow. The classical approach elements are discussed, and how these elements are likely to get affected are highlighted. The paper concludes with the challenges that lie ahead for the tomorrow's designers of the maintenance management system befitting to handle the nanotechnology based systems and devices.

Dynamic risk management unveil productivity improvements

Maintenance process and planning are at the heart of industrial occupations. Processes and equipments require controls and strategies to reduce costs and yield loss. Risk Based Maintenance (RBM) helps in reducing machinery failure rate and managing actions priorities. This paper proposes a method using FMECA as an operational tool which unveils productivity improvement areas. It demonstrates that it is possible to use FMECA method in a more dynamic environment, continuously updated by operational events. The article proposes a risk based maintenance method, which relies on the regular and automatic update of equipments risk analyses including equipment failure history. The method gives up-to-date information about equipments' risks. The article is structured in four parts. After a risk management domain literature overview, the paper presents a new risk based maintenance method. A case study in semiconductor industry shows that FMECA can be employed in a dynamic way for managing maintenance activities. The proposed model simplifies and makes more reliable risks identification and estimation. Results and a brief discussion conclude the article.