Maintenance Activities In Order Research Articles

Functional assessment of pavements on a university campus

With the constant increase in traffic volume at the Darcy Ribeiro Campus of the University of Brasília (UnB), attention to the preservation of road infrastructure is necessary. The implementation of an Urban Pavement Management System (UPMS) emerges as a strategy. This study aims to evaluate the functional condition of the pavements at the UnB University Campus by observing distresses on their surfaces, using the Fixed Value Matrix for 5 Distress method by Zanchetta (2017). A total of 161 road segments were evaluated, and both Objective and Subjective Pavement Condition Index (PCI) values were obtained, along with the recommended intervention for each segment. The most common types of defects found in the pavements were Raveling and Fatigue Cracks. The most suggested interventions were Preventive Maintenance (23.60%) and Corrective Maintenance (22.98%). Statistical analysis led to the conclusion that there were no significant differences between the Objective and Subjective PCI data. Thematic maps were generated for the Objective PCI, Subjective PCI, and maintenance activities in order to make georeferenced spatial information available.

ANALISIS PERAWATAN BELT MENGGUNAKAN METODE RELIABILITY CENTERED MAINTENANCE GUNA MENINGKATKAN PRODUKTIVITAS MESIN ATLANTIC ZEISER DI PT. WKI

M aintenance functions as monitoring, and maintaining company facilities , equipment , and work facilities by designing , managing , handling , and inspecting work to ensure functionality during uptime and minimize dowtime caused by damage or repairs. T his research is used to plan machine maintenance using the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method. The purpose of this research is to plan Preventive Maintenance activities in order to improve machine reliabilility and also maintain the smooth production process . From the fishbone diagram, it is known that the belt damage on the Atlantic Zeiser engine is due to four catagories, namely Material, Method, Man, and Enviroment. The belt is often used for the production process, but selection of the belt material with good quality according to spesifications . Based on the result of the calculation of the Realibility parameter, it is obtained from the Realibility parameter that the means time between failure data, Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of the lowest belt component is 125 hours and Realibility is R(t) the lowest 93,801%. From the Maintainability parameter, the data obtained are the longest average maintenance time (A) for the suction Fan, which is 5,750 hours and Mean Time Between Maintenance (MTBM) is 214,000 hours. From the Availibility parameter, the data obtained are Inharen availibility (Ai) and Achieved Availibility (Aa) namely belt is 97,737% and 96,423% . Keywords : Preventive Maintenance, Belt, Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Fishbone

The Prevalence and Importance of Semiformal Organizations and Semiformal Control in Rural China: Insights from a National Survey.

This analysis of data collected from a nationwide survey in 2021 focused on the prevalence and importance of different forms of social control particularly semiformal social control in community order maintenance within rural China. Scholars have a growing interest in China’s semiformal control. However, prior studies lack quantitative research on the prevalence and importance of this semiformal control. Employing quantitative analysis, this study found that China uses a trinary (formal, semiformal, and informal) control system to maintain social order as contrasted with a Western binary (formal vs. informal) control system. Overall, semiformal organizations—village committees—are more prevalent and important than formal control mechanisms such as government and police and informal control mechanisms such as xiangxian or kin or kin-kind community leaders. Furthermore, the relative prevalence and importance of semiformal organizations and control are found to be associated with types of social order maintenance activities. These findings are meaningful for testing the generalizability of social disorganization theory and developing a China- or Asian-centric control theory.

СЛОВАЦЬКА АРТИЛЕРІЯ У БОЙОВИХ ДІЯХ ПОЧАТКОВОГО ЕТАПУ НІМЕЦЬКО-РАДЯНСЬКОЇ ВІЙНИ (КІНЕЦЬ ЧЕРВНЯ – СЕРЕДИНА СЕРПНЯ 1941 РОКУ)

At the initial stage of the war against the USSR, in addition to German troops, Allied armies, including Slovakia, participated in the fighting on the territory of Ukraine. This country exhibited a relatively small contingent, representing all major arms. A significant role in the fighting played artillery units.On the eve of the war against the USSR, Slovakia had a large, though not too modern, artillery park (the share of modern artillery systems was 16.5%). However, its use in the first weeks of combat was very limited. In fact, only the artillery units of the Mobile Group reorganized into the Mobile Brigade were active in combat, initially one division (9 guns) and later an artillery regiment (36 guns). For this purpose the Slovak command has allocated the most modern artillery systems on mechanical traction –100 mmhowitzer vz. 30 and105 mmguns vz. 35. In addition, infantry guns used a small number of75 mmmountain guns vz. 15. The Mobile Brigade artillery demonstrated high efficiency during the largest fighting in the studied period with the participation of Slovak troops – the battle of Lipovec on July 22-23, 1941.The second component of the Slovak contingent allocated to participate in the war against the USSR, the Army Group, had a significantly stronger artillery component. It initially consisted of four artillery regiments – two in divisions and two separate. However, they did not carry out any combat tasks by their intended purpose. This is compounded by the fact that the Army Group served in the rear area and performed order maintenance activities in the occupied territory.All the artillery pieces used by the Slovak army were manufactured by Skoda. Among them were dominated by100 mmhowitzers of three different models – vz. 14/19, vz. 16/19 and vz. 30. The most modern model of artillery was the105 mmheavy cannon vz. 35. Mountain75 mmguns vz. 15 were used to directly support infantry.

Influence of traffic delay produced during maintenance activities on the life cycle assessment of a road

This paper analyses the relevance of the traffic delay generated during the A-8 Spanish Motorway maintenance activities in order to make recommendations for inclusion within the LCA of roads. Six congestion scenarios combining the level of service of the Motorway and the alternative N-634 route have been evaluated using two software packages: KyUCP (macro-simulation) and Aimsun (micro-simulation), whose results have been transferred into emissions using MOVES. After performing the LCA considering a functional unit of a 1-km lane with an analysis period of 30 years, results show the huge importance of this stage in all the scenarios analysed.

Police officers’ role orientations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine police officers’ attitudes toward community policing and order maintenance, as well as the facets of the work environment that impact those attitudes. Design/methodology/approach Survey data come from a sample of officers in a mid-sized police department. Ordinary least squares regression modeling is used to examine community-policing, order-maintenance and law-enforcement role orientations. Findings Officers endorse community partnerships, but are less enthusiastic about order maintenance. They also display mid-level support for traditional law enforcement. Work–environment variables have inconsistent impacts across the three role orientations. Research limitations/implications This was a survey of attitudes in one department. Future research should examine officers’ involvement in community-policing and order-maintenance activities and any impediments to such activities. Practical implications The findings have implications for police leaders seeking to implement community policing and ensure street-level officers are carrying out partnership and order-maintenance activities. In particular, top management must foster a positive work environment and personally model commitment to policing innovations. Originality/value This paper adds to the currently sparse body of literature on officer attitudes toward community policing and order maintenance, and incorporates traditional law-enforcement attitudes as a point of contrast. This paper advances the scholarly understanding of police officers’ role orientations.

In-Service Wind Turbine DFIG Diagnosis Using Current Signature Analysis

Operation and maintenance costs of wind power plants represent a significant share of the total expenditure of a wind farm project. It is therefore vital to optimize maintenance activities in order to reduce costs while improving wind turbine reliability and availability. The induction generator is a major contributor to failure rates and downtime of wind turbines, where doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs) are the dominant variable-speed technology employed. Actual data from operating wind turbines is seldom presented in the scientific literature. This paper analyzes two in-service DFIGs from wind turbines operating in a Spanish wind power plant. One of the generators under study reported excessive temperature on the rotor windings, while the other did not. In order to achieve a diagnosis for the reported excess of temperature, current signature analyses were performed on both machines. Fault-related frequency components were identified in the current spectra of the faulty machine, and were compared against the healthy one. A diagnosis was achieved for the faulty machine: Dynamic eccentricity caused by a rotor fault was identified as the cause of the excessive temperature in the rotor windings.

Planning urban pavement maintenance by a new interactive multiobjective optimization approach

Pavement maintenance is essential to prevent the deterioration of asset value and to satisfy the expectations of all stakeholders (objectives). However, the budgets are often insufficient to keep the road pavement at optimum levels. Therefore, a decision making process ought to be used for prioritizing different maintenance activities in order to achieve pre-defined goals by optimizing the use of the available budget. One of the biggest difficulties in multiobjective optimization method is the large number of the feasible solutions (Pareto optimal set or its approximation), which makes it hard for the Decision Maker to select the best solution.To support interaction with the decision maker for identifying the best combination of maintenance actions, this paper proposes a new methodology named “Interactive Multiobjective Optimization-Dominance Rough Set Approach” (IMO-DRSA), using a decision-rule preference model.The preference information, obtained by the Decision Maker (DM) during the course of the interaction, is processed using the Dominance-based Rough Set Approach in order to achieve a decision model expressed in terms of easily understandable “if ….then …” decision rules. This approach makes possible an interaction between the analyst and the decision maker and helps the decision maker to classify maintenance options and allocate limited funds according to predefined objectives (quantitative or qualitative). An application of the proposed methodology to road pavements of an Italian urban sub-network is presented.

Reliability Centered Maintenance to Determine Priority of Machine Damage Mode

High machine downtime results in the production process being disrupted. The average engine breakdown in the sterilizer production is 35.66 hours/month. The corrective maintenance method has not been able to guarantee a smooth production process. This study will plan preventive maintenance activities in order to increase the reliability of production machinery and also maintain the smooth production process. The study was carried out by identifying the damage level of a sterilizer machine with the FMEA method. Based on the result of the FMEA method, maintenance planning of the production machine using the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). FMEA indicates that there are 5 highest risk priority number values, namely the IGBT, Mosfet, bearing bushings, rool former and v-block components. For the maintenance planning using the RCM method, the results obtained were the Total Minimum Downtime (TMD) criteria indicates that the optimum turnover interval of Roll Former, Mosfet, V-Block, IGBT, and Bearing Bushing components is 24 days, 23 days, 25 days, 26 days, and 22 days. The recommendation of the RCM maintenance method has the potential to have a positive impact, namely a decrease in the average critical component downtime of 37,103 % and also an increase in reliability.

Ant colony optimisation combined with variable neighbourhood search for scheduling preventive railway maintenance activities

Railway infrastructure maintenance is of fundamental importance in order to ensure a good service in terms of punctuality, safety and efficiently operation of trains on railway track and also for passenger comfort. Track maintenance covers a large amount of different activities such as inspections, repairs, and renewals. In this paper, we address the NP-hard problem of scheduling the preventive railway maintenance activities in order to minimise the overall cost of these activities. Given the complexity of the problem, we propose two meta-heuristics, a variable neighbourhood search (VNS), and an ant colony optimisation (ACO) based on opportunities to deal with this problem. Then, we develop a hybrid approach combining ACO with VNS. The performance of our proposed algorithms is tested by numerical experiments on a large number of randomly generated instances. Comparisons with optimal solutions are presented. The results show the effectiveness of our proposed methods.

Ant colony optimisation combined with variable neighbourhood search for scheduling preventive railway maintenance activities

Railway infrastructure maintenance is of fundamental importance in order to ensure a good service in terms of punctuality, safety and efficiently operation of trains on railway track and also for passenger comfort. Track maintenance covers a large amount of different activities such as inspections, repairs, and renewals. In this paper, we address the NP-hard problem of scheduling the preventive railway maintenance activities in order to minimise the overall cost of these activities. Given the complexity of the problem, we propose two meta-heuristics, a variable neighbourhood search (VNS), and an ant colony optimisation (ACO) based on opportunities to deal with this problem. Then, we develop a hybrid approach combining ACO with VNS. The performance of our proposed algorithms is tested by numerical experiments on a large number of randomly generated instances. Comparisons with optimal solutions are presented. The results show the effectiveness of our proposed methods.

Whistland: An Augmented Reality Crowd-Mapping System for Civil Protection and Emergency Management

The prevention and correct management of natural disaster event sequences play a key role in saving human lives. The availability of embedded and mobile smart computing systems opens new roads for the management of land and infrastructures by civil protection operators. To date, research has explored the use of social networks for the management of disasters connected to meteorological/hydrogeological events or earthquakes, but without emphasis on the importance of an integrated system. The main feature of the Whistland system proposed in this paper is to make synergistic use of augmented reality (AR), crowd-mapping (CM), social networks, the Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless sensor networks (WSN) by exploiting technologies and frameworks of Web 2.0 and GIS 2.0 to make informed decisions about the chain of events. The Whistland system is composed of a geo-server, a mobile application with AR and an analytics dashboard. The geo-server acts as the hub of the sensor and social networks. The abstracted concept in this sense is the transformation of the user domain into “intelligent sensors” for the whole scope of crisis management. The social network integration is made through an efficient pointer-like mechanism that keeps the storage requirement low through a mobile application based on an augmented reality engine and provides qualitative information that sensors are unable to capture. Real-time analyses, geo-searches and the capability to examine event histories with an augmented reality engine all help the stakeholders to understand better the state of the resources under observation/monitoring. The system has been extensively tested in the programmed maintenance of river basins, where it is necessary to log maintenance activities in order to keep the riverbank clean: a significant use-case in many countries affected by hydro-geological instability.

Integrating sequence-dependent group scheduling problem and preventive maintenance in flexible flow shops

This study integrates flexible flow shop group scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setups and preventive maintenance activities in order to minimize the total completion time (makespan). In a group scheduling problem, scheduling of groups and the jobs within each group are determined. As the considered problem is strongly NP-hard, we propose two meta-heuristics based on simulated annealing (SA) and genetic algorithm (GA) to solve it. Matrix solution representation is a key feature of GA-based algorithm that makes possible the representation of groups and the jobs within groups simultaneously. In addition, the SA-based algorithm is equipped with a local search procedure to enhance the quality of its solution. In order to set parameters and better achieve the performances of the algorithms, we exploit Taguchi robust parameter design method. The performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated on a variety of test problems, namely small- and large-sized problems. Makespan and elapsed central processing unit (CPU, or processing) time to obtain it are considered as two response variables representing effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithms, respectively. The obtained results show that there is statistically significant difference between performances of the proposed algorithms. GA-based algorithm shows better performance on two response variables for both problem sizes (except regarding elapsed CPU time to obtain the best solution for large-sized problems) with a p value of 0 and outperforms SA-based algorithm.

A Maintenance Optimzation Policy for an Electric Power Distribution System: Case of the HV/MV Substations

Today, in the modern era, and under the pressure of rapid development around the kingdom regions, electric utilities are confronted with a myriad of challenges that include aging infrastructure, enhanced expectation of reliability, reduced cost, and coping effectively with uncertainties and changing regulation requirements. Indeed, for distribution systems, HV/MV substations represent a complex and critical physical asset that requires a careful evaluation of their maintenance practices aiming at more cost-effective tasks. The first concern of the electric power distribution company in Morocco is the optimization of the distribution network maintenance scheduling, to minimize system operating costs and ensure that the system is running most economically. There is significant pressure on power providers for greater system reliability and improvement of customer satisfaction, while similar emphasis is placed on cost reduction. These cost reductions focus on reducing operating and maintenance expenses, and minimizing investments in new plants and equipment. However, the present of the electricity distribution, influenced by a number of technical restrictions and strict regulatory requirements to meet, leads distribution utilities to search new ways of optimizing the maintenance management, make an effort to maximize profit by reducing their electricity supply and operation costs while maintaining their reliability, developing more effective activities, with lower costs. Furthermore, maximal HV/MV substation asset value and minimal maintenance cost are typical economic objectives of the electric utilities. The optimization of maintenance is one possible technique to reduce maintenance costs while improving reliability and utilities need to implement new strategies for more effective maintenance techniques and Asset Management (AM) methods programs to manage inspections and maintenance activities in order to control HV/MV substation equipment conditions. However, development of strategies to make sound decisions in order to effectively improve equipment and system reliability while meeting constraints such as a maintenance budget is a challenge. Finally, this paper describes the application of a new approach based Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) methodology to optimize maintenance resources and to the development of maintenance plan for HV/MV distribution substations. For this purpose, a case study was performed on the equipment of power distribution systems for the benefit of a holding company (ONEE Electricity Distribution) in Morocco. The present study was conducted in Oujda Exploitation Maintenance Service (OEXMS), in charge of operation and maintenance of distribution networks.

Supervisor‐officer fit and role ambiguity

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to re‐examine the nature of the sergeant‐officer attitudinal relationship. Using person‐environment fit as a framework, the current study tests the influence that sergeant‐officer attitudinal congruence concerning role orientations has on officer role ambiguity.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses survey data from 765 patrol officers and 146 sergeants across five police departments. Polynomial regression, calculated values, and response surface plots were used to examine the effect of sergeant‐officer attitudinal congruence on role ambiguity.FindingsFirst, there was modest empirical evidence that the relationship between sergeant and officer views toward order maintenance and role ambiguity was nonlinear. Second, role ambiguity was lowest for officers supervised by sergeants who highly accepted order maintenance activities. Finally, role ambiguity was higher when both officers and sergeants failed to view order maintenance and law enforcement as important functions of the police role.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings highlight the need to incorporate additional research approaches that capture differences in officer and sergeant views toward police work. Such differences might impact other attitudinal outcomes or officer discretionary behaviors.Practical implicationsWhen looking at attitudinal congruence, the results show that sergeants have the capacity to attenuate or amplify officer role ambiguity. This emphasizes the need for police administrators to ensure that sergeants communicate job expectations to their subordinate officers that are in line with the department's values.Originality/valueThe study adds to the limited body of research on frontline supervision by examining the nature of the sergeant‐officer attitudinal relationship from an alternative theoretical approach.

What you like in design use to correct bad-smells

Over the past decades, many techniques and tools have been developed to support maintenance activities in order to improve software quality. One of the most efficient ones is software refactoring to eliminate bad-smells. A majority of existing work propose "standard" refactoring solutions that can be applied by hand for each kind of defect. However, it is difficult to prove or ensure the generality of these solutions to any kind of bad-smells or software codes. In this paper, we propose an approach to correct bad-smells using well-designed code. We use genetic algorithms to generate correction solutions defined as a combination of refactoring operations that maximize, as much as possible, the similarity between the corrected bad-smells and examples of well-designed code. We report the results of an evaluation of our approach using four open-source projects. Our proposal achieved high correction scores by fixing the majority of expected bad-smells.

New Mechanistic–Empirical Approach for Estimating the Effect of Roughness on Vehicle Durability

Vehicle manufacturers place a major focus on improving the design of vehicle components to respond better to changes in road surface profiles. Nevertheless, changes in the surface profile still directly affect user costs including repair and maintenance (R&M) costs and damage to goods. For example, AASHTO reported that poor road conditions added an estimated $76.8 billion to transport costs annually. The objective here is to estimate the effect of roughness, as expressed by the international roughness index, on vehicle durability and R&M costs. First, the R&M costs of Zaniewski et al. (the latest comprehensive research conducted in the United States) are updated by multiplying their reported costs by the inflation rate of R&M costs between 1982 and 2007. Then a mechanistic–empirical (M-E) methodology is proposed to estimate the effect of roughness on R&M costs. The proposed approach is based on fatigue damage analysis by using numerical modeling of the vehicle response. Finally, the results from the M-E approach are compared with the empirical results (updated Zaniewski tables) and found to be very close up to 5 m/km. The standard error is about 2%. Also, a case study of the I-69 section near Lansing, Michigan, is presented. This detailed analysis is useful for identifying those segments of the road within a project that cause higher operating costs to the traveling vehicles. These localized rough sections could then be subject to maintenance activities in order to remedy the problem.

A comparison of Chinese and the U.S. police cadets’ occupational attitudes

While police attitudes and behaviors have been the subject of a large number of studies conducted since the 1960s, very few studies had assessed Chinese police officers’ work-related attitudes and compared them with those of the U.S. police cadets. Using survey data collected from 263 Chinese and American police cadets, the research empirically tested whether Chinese and American police cadet attitudes differed across four attitudinal dimensions: aggressive patrol, order maintenance, legal restrictions, and distrust of citizens. Bivariate and multivariate results showed that Chinese cadets displayed occupational outlooks that distinguished them from their American counterparts. Chinese cadets supported aggressive patrol and were more distrustful of citizens than their American counterparts. American cadets were more favorable of order maintenance activities and more accepting of legal restrictions compared with Chinese cadets. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

An approach for evaluating preventive maintenance scheduling cost

PurposeThis paper aims to revisit the preventive maintenance scheduling literature. The problem to be solved is the simultaneous scheduling of resource‐constrained preventive maintenance and operations. In particular, the expression that defines the period‐dependent cost function for a preventive maintenance scheduling activity is redefined. A case study is presented from the shipping industry.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper a mathematical theory of differential calculus known as three‐dimensional wave equation is applied. The methodology involves transforming the preventive maintenance cost function that is expressed in terms of several variables into a more precise framework. The motivation for the work is the need to measure the total preventive maintenance scheduling cost more precisely than with the use of the existing linear cost structure.FindingsIn this paper the findings from the analysis carried out found evidence that validates the claim of the feasibility of analyzing preventive maintenance cost using the approach proposed.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper shows that, in practice, maintenance managers strive to reduce the cost of preventive maintenance activities in order to achieve low cost production of goods. This would encourage a high patronage of customers and prevent decisions being made on wrong data. The approach presented here aims at correcting this weakness by revealing a more precise and reliable method of preventive maintenance scheduling cost computation. This is a scientific tool that should be of immense benefit to maintenance planners, particularly those actively engaged in scheduling functions.Originality/valueThe work in this paper is new, since a novel framework is presented in a way that has not been documented earlier.

Structural arrangements in large municipal police organizations: revisiting Wilson’s theory of local political culture

For the past 35 years, Wilson’s theory of local political culture has influenced many students of policing and has greatly contributed to the erudition of American police practices. Wilson, based on empirical study, found that variation in the structural arrangements of police organizations could be explained by examining the local political culture of the municipalities in which they are located. Police departments in cities with a professional form of government, for example, focused more on law enforcement activities and had a more bureaucratic structure than agencies residing in cities with a traditional form of government which focused more on order maintenance activities and, correspondingly, had a less bureaucratic structure. The purpose of this paper is to test the utility of Wilson’s theory in today’s police organizations. Data collected from a sample of large, municipal police departments were included in the analysis. The findings suggest that the relationship between local political culture and police organizational structure that Wilson identified many years ago has indeed attenuated. The sample of large municipal police agencies, finds no relationship between local political culture, as measured by Wilson, and four dimensions of organizational structure: formalization, vertical differentiation, functional differentiation, and centralization.