Maintenance management and engineering

Assignment 1: Overall picture of various analyses in maintenance engineering & management

Facility location

Resource capacity

LRU

FTA

FMCA

RCMA

MTA

LORA

Planning and scheduling

Spare parts stocks

In the analysis that we performed we start with the facility location because it is easier to
identify the main suppliers and key areas to service the new trains and hence reducing the downtime for
them on the busiest routes.
Then we made the resource capacity analysis to calculate the required equipment and
personnel for repairing and maintaining the trains. We took into consideration equipment costs, labor
costs and unexpected events and costs.
Next we made an analysis on the LRUs available for the trains. We made this because these are
essential support items which are removed and replaced at the field level to restore the end items to
an operational ready condition. These are used to reduce the downtime of the trains and hence
reducing the man hours needed to replace the components on the train and so increasing efficiency.
The LRU analysis is done by getting an input from the MTA which in turn receives input from
RCMA and FTA.
The MTA analysis is done by identifying each step of the repair processes. This analysis
include the personnel needed for each step of the processes and the description of the jobs they are
doing, time durations for each operation, tools and support equipment and also parts and materials
needed for each step.
The RCMA is done to show the means to maintain the functions of the equipment for a
defined operating context. This enables to monitor, asses, predict and understand the working of the
physical assets and also identifying the operating context of the machinery.
Between the RCMA analysis and the FTA analysis we did the FME(C)A analysis. This is
done to identify the most likely modes of failure and the possible effects of each failure. This also
analyzes the critical effects of each failure, such as: mission completion, environmental impacts,
health hazards, and system safety.

Before the MTA analysis we did the FTA analysis. This analyzes the high-level failures
and show all the lower-level failures that cause them. Usually the failures that are on the highest
levels of the FTA represent a complete or catastrophic failure of the entire system.
After doing MTA analysis using RCMA, FME(C)A and FTA analyses we defined the
structure and importance of the LRUs.
The next step is make the decisions for LORA. LORA is performed to determine the
best, most efficient location where an item can be repaired. By using this we can decide on the
stocking of spare parts(number of parts and locations) and plan the preventive maintenance
operations and logistic problems.
The spare parts stocks are done according to the results from LORA.
Planning and scheduling is the final step in the analysis for the maintenance of the new
train fleet. This is done by applying decisions made in LORA and in stocking of parts. Here
concepts like corrective and preventive maintenance are executed on the equipment following
the decisions made in the above mentioned analyses.
Facility locations
Decisions: routes that the trains are used, most important routes

Resource capacity:
Inputs: number of trains repaired, equipment needed
Outputs: size of the repair facility, costs for the facility, personnel needed
RCMA
The analysis is done monthly
Inputs: item function and performance, failures, events that cause failures, failure importance,
Outputs: preventive actions, alternative solutions, failure effects
FME(C)A
The analysis is done twice a year
Inputs: mission of items, operating times, failure rates
Outputs: effect of each failure, development of corrective actions, test methods and
troubleshooting techniques, reliability and maintainability analyses, identifying the reliability and safety
if critical components.
FTA
The analysis is done monthly
Inputs: studied failure, probabilities of failure, causing effects,
Outputs: risk analysis, system improvements, hazard control
MTA
The analysis is done twice a year
Inputs: personnel participating at each step, time duration, tools and equipment required, parts
and materials needed.
Outputs: total elapsed time for tasks, the skill level required for the personnel, facility
implications and limitations, minimum capacity requirements
LORA
The analysis is done yearly, but changes can be made without making the analysis if critical
problems are detected.
Inputs: operating sites, supplied components, mean time between failures, costs, equipment
location, available decisions at echelon level
Outputs: efficiency, downtime for the trains, echelon levels, backorders, availability
All the other analyses are done yearly

The key decisions and processes are:

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The locations of the repair facilities

The equipment at each facility
The assemblies and components that are considered LRUs
The maintenance plan
The stock of parts
The frequency of the analyses

All of the above mentioned analyses are done for only one type of system. The same analyses
will be done once a year for the entire system to ensure that it is functioning as good as it can.
This is necessary to ensure that not only one type of system is as efficient as it can be but the
entire network that contains all of the system is working with the maximum efficiency.
We decided that the FTA and RCMA should be done monthly because then maintenance plan is
done for new equipment. Working with new equipment means that there are a lot of unknown
factors regarding the performance of the parts, failures, effects and causes. Doing these
analyses more often than the others ensures that when the other analyses are done there is a
lot of information available to make the best decision and make the repair network as efficient
as possible, thus ensuring a high availability for the assets.
We decided to put repair facilities on the busiest routes because on those routes the largest
number of the new trains will be running. We decided this to reduce the transport costs to get
the trains to the repair shop and also the time it takes to bring the train to the facility. This helps
by reducing the overall repair costs and the downtime of the trains, meaning that the availability
of the trains will be higher.
References:
https://dap.dau.mil/acquipedia/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?aid=fdbd5158-4476-4bf2-a5ab5abdc4bcb731
https://dap.dau.mil/acquipedia/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?aid=185b16dc-6185-42e4-aa82d24f1c170869
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_tree_analysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_Repair_Analysis
Maintenance management and engineering lecture slides, Lectures 1,2,3,4,5
https://dap.dau.mil/acquipedia/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?aid=1051da42-b287-4042-b5ab85bebebadf2d
https://dap.dau.mil/acquipedia/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?aid=8680c037-6a24-4c6d-8b6fea2392d16871
https://dap.dau.mil/acquipedia/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?aid=185b16dc-6185-42e4-aa82d24f1c170869