APPLICATION OF PROBABILITY TECHNIQUES TO MAINTENANCE OF EQUIPMENT

Abstract

A typical maintenance problem is that presented by recurrent equipment breakdown or failure, The decision re-quired is the selection of a course of action which will i minimise its breakdown or failure frequency, and the selec-tion might be based as it often is, on a minimum cost cri-terion. Possible course of action might be replacing at fixed time before failure, replacing on inspection before failure or replacing after failure. Identification of the most suitable action is only po-ssible if there is understanding of the influencing factors, the most important of which would probably be the cause of failure, its incidence with respect to time, the cost of main-tenance and the non quantifiable elements such as the attitude of the trade force to preventive maintenance.....