Progressive maintenance policy for multiple repairable systems with imperfect maintenance

• Published in: Journal of quality in maintenance engineering Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 668 - 685
• Main Authors: Sharma, Garima, Rai, Rajiv Nandan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Publishing Limited 28.06.2022; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Aerospace engineering; Aerospace industry; Age; Comparative studies; Degradation; Failure; Human error; Intervention; Literature reviews; Maintenance costs; MTBF; Nuclear power plants; Parameter estimation; Policies; Preventive maintenance; Repair & maintenance; Progressive maintenance; Hard life; Availability; Aero engines; Mean residual life; Imperfect maintenance; Generalized renewal process; Maintenance cost; Virtual life; Time between overhaul; Multiple repairable systems; Total technical life
• ISSN: 1355-2511; 1758-7832
• DOI: 10.1108/JQME-08-2019-0075

PurposeDegradation of repairable components may not be similar after each maintenance activity; thus, the classic (traditional-time based) maintenance policies, which consider preventive maintenance (PM), age-based maintenance and overhauls to be done at fixed time interval, may fail to monitor the exact condition of the component. Thus, a progressive maintenance policy (PMP) may be more appropriate for the industries that deal with large, complex and critical repairable systems (RS) such as aerospace industries, nuclear power plants, etc.Design/methodology/approachA progressive maintenance policy is developed, in which hard life, PM scheduled time and overhaul period of the system are revised after each service activity by adjusting PM interval and mean residual life (MRL) such that the risk of failure is not increased.FindingsA comparative study is then carried out between the classic PM policy and developed PMP, and the improvement in availability, mean time between failures and reduction in maintenance cost is registered.Originality/valueThe proposed PMP takes care of the equipment degradation more efficiently than any other existing maintenance policies and is also flexible in its application as the policy can be continuously amended as per the failure profile of the equipment. Similar maintenance policies assuming lifetime distributions are available in the literature, but to ascertain that the proposed PMP is more suitable and applicable to the industries, this paper uses Kijima-based imperfect maintenance models. The proposed PMP is demonstrated through a real-time data set example.