A Model for Periodic Preventive Maintenance Policy for a Series Parallel System

An exact algorithm for preventive maintenance planning of series-parallel systems

Reliability is a meaningful parameter in assessing the performance of systems such as chemical processing facilities, power plant, aircrafts, ships, etc. In the literature, reliability optimization is widely considered during the system design phase and it is carried out by an opportune selection of both system components and redundancy. On the other hand, the problem of maintaining a required level of reliability by an opportune maintenance policy has been poorly examined. The paper tackles this problem for a system whose major components can be maintained only during a planned system downtime. An exact algorithm is proposed in order to single out the set of components that must be maintai…

Optimal Selection of Maintenance Actions on a Multi-Component System

The research aims to single out the maintenance actions to perform on a series arranged components system each one constituted by elements in parallel and maintained only during some planned stops. The considered system has to periodically carry out missions during which the system failure is a critical event for their own success. That being so, the faced problem is here to assure the maximum reliability level up to the next planned stop. For this reason an exact algorithm is proposed in order to individuate the set of components on which performing maintenance actions and for each of them determining the number of elements that must be maintained so as the maximum reliability level is ach…

Epistemic uncertainty in fault tree analysis approached by the evidence theory

Abstract Process plants may be subjected to dangerous events. Different methodologies are nowadays employed to identify failure events, that can lead to severe accidents, and to assess the relative probability of occurrence. As for rare events reliability data are generally poor, leading to a partial or incomplete knowledge of the process, the classical probabilistic approach can not be successfully used. Such an uncertainty, called epistemic uncertainty, can be treated by means of different methodologies, alternative to the probabilistic one. In this work, the Evidence Theory or Dempster–Shafer theory (DST) is proposed to deal with this kind of uncertainty. In particular, the classical Fau…

Optimal Maintenance For a System with Required Reliability

The effectiveness of a maintenance policy for a production system is generally measured by its availability. Nevertheless, for some production systems, the failure is a dangerous event for people or in any case too much expensive; therefore the failure probability must be maintained less than an accepted low value by a proper preventive maintenance policy. The system considered hereafter is schematized by a series of components some of them constituted by parallel-series sub-systems. The problem is to individuate the set of elements on which to operate the maintenance actions, providing the system functioning with the required reliability until the next planned maintenance instant by the mi…

A cost model for the selection of a maintenance activity in a series system

The facility layout problem approached using a fuzzy model and a genetic search

The problem of facility layout design is discussed, taking into account the uncertainty of production scenarios and the finite production capacity of the departments. The uncertain production demand is modelled by a fuzzy number, and constrained arithmetic operators are used in order to calculate the fuzzy material handling costs. By using a ranking criterion, the layout that represents the minimum fuzzy cost is selected. A flexible bay structure is adopted as a physical model of the system while an effective genetic algorithm is implemented to search for a near optimal solution in a fuzzy contest. Constraints on the aspect ratio of the departments are taken into account using a penalty fun…

Le tecniche di ragionamento approssimato nella gestione dei container terminal

A multi-objective approach to facility layout problem by genetic search algorithm and Electre method

Abstract Classical approaches to layout design problem tend to maximise the efficiency of layout, measured by the handling cost related to the interdepartmental flow and to the distance among the departments. However, the actual problem involves several conflicting objectives hence requiring a multi-objective formulation. Multi-objective approaches, recently proposed, in most cases lead to the maximisation of a weighted sum of score functions. The poor practicability of such an approach is due to the difficulty of normalising these functions and of quantifying the weights. In this paper, this difficulty is overcome by approaching the problem in two subsequent steps: in the first step, the P…

Multi-objective human resources allocation in R&D projects planning

In a R&D department, several projects may have to be implemented simultaneously within a certain period of time by a limited number of human resources with diverse skills. This paper proposes an optimisation model for the allocation of multi-skilled human resources to R&D projects, considering individual workers as entities having different knowledge, experience and ability. The model focuses on three fundamental aspects of human resources: the different skill levels, the learning process and the social relationships existing in working teams. The resolution approach for the multi-objective problem consists of two steps: firstly, a set of non-dominated solutions is obtained by exploring the…

Criteri di valutazione nelle attività decisionali di una azienda di trasporto tranviario

A Project Manager Suitability Parameter in Project Accomplishment

One the most critical aspect in project management is how to assign the project managers (PMs) to projects, especially whenever the PMs can lead more than one project. The present paper proposes a parameter (PME) to evaluate the PM in accomplishing a specific project useful for a next phase of assignment. The PME takes into account the technical skills, the leadership behavior and the relationships with project’s stakeholders. These parameters are aggregated by a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) that well emulates the decision process of the experts by means of a rule-based inference engine. Moreover, to better define the PME, a procedure, based on the discordance concept, is proposed to compar…

A Multi-Objective Approach to Optimize a Periodic Maintenance Policy

The present paper proposes a multi-objective approach to find out an optimal periodic maintenance policy for a repairable and stochastically deteriorating multi-component system over a finite time horizon. The tackled problem concerns the determination of the system elements to replace at each scheduled and periodical system inspection by ensuring the simultaneous minimization of both the expected total maintenance cost and the expected global system unavailability time. It is assumed that in the case of system elements failure they are instantaneously detected and repaired by means of minimal repair actions in order to rapidly restore the system. A nonlinear integer mathematical programmi…

A multi-objective approach to solid waste management

The issue addressed in this paper consists in the localization and dimensioning of transfer stations, which constitute a necessary intermediate level in the logistic chain of the solid waste stream, from municipalities to the incinerator. Contextually, the determination of the number and type of vehicles involved is carried out in an integrated optimization approach. The model considers both initial investment and operative costs related to transportation and transfer stations. Two conflicting objectives are evaluated, the minimization of total cost and the minimization of environmental impact, measured by pollution. The design of the integrated waste management system is hence approached i…

Integrated Approach to Part Scheduling and Inspection Policies for a Job Shop Manufacturing System

The quality of a product greatly depends on the quality of its components. This requires that manufacturing specifications have to be met in the manufacturing environment and as a consequence inspection stations are present in many manufacturing systems and inspection policies must be adopted. One problem, which has been widely investigated, concerns the detection of the inspection points in the hypothesis that the action to be taken is known when a defective part is detected. If different jobs are to be produced, then operation scheduling becomes yet another complex problem needing to be solved. And while the problem of scheduling has received a great amount of attention from researchers, …

Tecniche di ottimizzazione multi-obiettivo e metodologie di supporto alle decisioni per la progettazione di processi di stampaggio di lamiere

A multi-objective approach to facility layout problem by genetic search and Electre method

Tool replacement with adaptive control in a non-stationary non-periodic stochastic process

Abstract The problem of optimum tool replacement is studied in the case in which tool performance is characterized by progressive decay over time following stochastic laws. A control system is assumed which detects, continuously or at fixed intervals, the service state of the tool. Assuming that the service state of the tool affects the marginal cost of production, the latter is used in order to minimize the unit production cost for an unlimited production horizon. The replacement policy proposed is able to update itself in process by means of an iterative procedure which converges to a conditioned optimum. The effectiveness of such a policy is demonstrated analytically, and illustrative ex…

Approccio multicriterio al problema del layout con ELECTRE

A Bayesian approach for predictive maintenance policy with imperfect monitoring

In the traditional preventive maintenance policy, the periodic maintenance activities are scheduled on the basis of the a-priori information about the failure behaviour of the population which the component belongs to, by assuming a probability distribution function and by estimating the involved statistical parameters. On the contrary, with the predictive approach, the maintenance activity is scheduled on the basis of the real degradation level of the component. So, it is possible to reduce the failure probability and, at the same time, to use the component for almost all its useful life. For this reason, the predictive maintenance policy makes possible the reduction of the maintenance cos…

An equation to calculate the availability for the k-out-of-n system

Reliability and availability (R&A) analyses are primary phases in management of complex systems and play a fundamental role in products and services quality. Management of maintenance activities has to be based on optimisation to simultaneously improve the operative conditions of the system. Maintenance optimization can be effeectively pursued by the RCM (Reliability-centered maintenance) approach. The authors demonstrate the global improvement of R&A by applying the RCM to the results derived by the FMECA (Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis). Many efforts have been made to improve traditional methodologies of analysis, mainly tending to reduce the imprecision on data related to…

Food safety risk analysis from the producers' perspective: prioritisation of production process stages by HACCP and TOPSIS

[EN] From the manufacturers perspective, the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system nowadays represents the mainly way to implement the food safety risk management in food industries. Nevertheless, the identification and prioritization of hazards as the outcome of the first principle of HACCP is not sufficient to identify production process stages that more significantly and critically contribute to the consumer¿s risks. With this recognition, the present paper proposes a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) approach based on HACCP and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to individuate production process phases on which implementing co…

An imprecise Fault Tree Analysis for the estimation of the Rate of OCcurrence Of Failure (ROCOF)

Abstract The paper proposes an imprecise Fault Tree Analysis in order to characterize systems affected by the lack of reliability data. Differently from other research works, the paper introduces a classification of basic events into two categories, namely Initiators and Enablers . Actually, in real industrial systems some events refer to component failures or process parameter deviations from normal operating conditions ( Initiators ), whereas others refer to the functioning of safety barriers to be activated on demand ( Enablers ). As a consequence, the output parameter of interest is not the classical probability of occurrence of the top event, but its Rate of OCcurrence (ROCOF) over a s…

MInimizing earliness and tardiness costs by ant system approach

The performance of production systems, which are more and more client oriented, strongly depends on the punctuality in the delivery of orders. However, management policies of manufacturing systems have a tendency of reducing batch dimensions which, sometimes, is reduced to a single job. The reason for this tendency is to reduce quantities of stock and to satisfy the customer’s requirements. It is the Just-in-Time approach, in which the production of a job is scheduled after the acquisition of an order, on the basis of the due date and the actual production capacity of the system. In the present paper, a manufacturing system characterized by a bottleneck station is considered. A set of jobs …

Robust Maintenance Scheduling for Reliability Maximization

The present paper aims to single out the maintenance actions to perform on a system constrained to be maintained only during some planned stops. Since system failure implies costs and risks for people and/or the environment, then it is necessary to minimize the probability of its occurrence. Thus, maintenance actions need to maximize the system reliability up to the next planned stop, in respect to some constraint. The originality of the problem discussed in the present paper lies in considering reliability values affected with uncertainty within a range of vagueness. Consequently, a further problem is added to the constrained reliability maximization, that is the search for a robust soluti…

Project manager assignment by fuzzy inference and mathematical programming

A Fuzzy inference model for the layout design

Optimum scheduling of dual gripper robots

A predictive maintenance policy with imperfect monitoring

For many systems,failure is a very dangerous or costly event. To reduce the occurrence of this event,it is necessary to implement a preventive maintenance policy to replace the critical elements before failure.Since elements do not often exhibit incipient faults, they are replaced before a complete exploiting of their useful life.To conjugate the objective of exploiting elements for almost all their useful life with the objective to avoid failure,condition based and,more recently,predictive maintenance policies have been proposed.This paper deals with this topic and proposes a procedure for the computation of the maintenance time that minimizes the global maintenance cost.By adopting a stoc…

ELECTRE TRI-based approach to the failure modes classification on the basis of risk parameters: An alternative to the risk priority number

Proposing an ELECTRE TRI-based approach for the failure modes classification into predefined and ordered risk classes.Direct identification of failure modes on which performing the corrective actions with priority.Easy definition of risk classes on the basis of DMs expertise and perception of the industrial context considered.Application to dairy manufacturing processes. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is an engineering technique aimed at the detection of potential failures, their causes and consequences on the system/process under investigation. When used for the failure modes prioritization, FMEA is also referred to as Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). In tr…

Logistica delle merci La rivoluzione del container

Measures of performance for the portfolio management

Minimizing the cycle time in serial manufacturing systems with multiple dual-gripper robots

Robots are being used more and more extensively as material-handling systems for automated manufacturing systems. This is especially true for dual-gripper robots whose in-process buffer (the robot's second gripper) constitutes a further element of flexibility. When the number of stations to be served is high and the set of activities the robot must execute is great, the system throughput may depend on robot capability rather than on process times. In such conditions, the use of several robots leads to an increase in system productivity. Obviously, the design and the management of such a handling system becomes more complex: the minimum number of robots required, the work stations to be serv…

A Multistep Methodology for the Evaluation of Human Resources Using the Evidence Theory

The paper aims at proposing a model for the human resources evaluation as regards to a set of skills. Specifically, it starts sfrom the judgments expressed by a team of experts on the basis of their previous working experiences with the resource to be evaluated. Information arising from experts is successively handled by the analyst and aggregated to determine the resource suitability or unsuitability. The Dempster–Shafer theory is proposed here as an appropriate tool to deal with both the uncertainty of experts due to the incomplete knowledge about resources to be evaluated and that of the analyst to convert expert judgments in terms of resource suitability/unsuitability. Furthermore, the …

Selection of Series System Components to Maximize Reliability

The paper tackles the problem of maximizing the reliability of a series system by an opportune choice of components. Each type of component must be selected among the available alternatives for that component whereas a fixed amount of budget can not be overcome. The problem can be formulated by a binary non linear programming model and it is equivalent to a knapsack problem with multiple-choice constraints, well known to be NP-hard. An exact algorithm is proposed for solving large dimension problems to the optimum in a short time. The algorithm efficiency is finally compared with the recent heuristics proposed in literature to approach the same problem.

Clean Agent Selection Approached by Fuzzy TOPSIS Decision-Making Method

Abstract. It is well known that halons are ozone-depleting substances and their release into the atmosphere has contributed in the last decades to the reduction in the ozone layer. In consequence to the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement designed to gradually eliminate the use of such substances, fire protection industry researchers faced the challenge of finding effective solutions to replace halon extinguishers. This research aims to provide a method to support the decision maker in the selection of the most suitable extinguisher substance for a specific application. According to such framework, a set of quantitative and qualitative criteria has been established in the decision…

Handling epistemic uncertainty in the Fault Tree Analysis using interval valued expert information

Risk Analysis ( RA) is a meaningful process in every industrial context, particularly referring to major hazard plants. In such sites, input reliability data are generally poor so leading to a partial or incomplete knowledge of the failure process. As a consequence, RA is always affected by the so called epistemic uncertainty which presence makes inappropriate the classical probabilistic approach. Therefore, the present work deals with such a kind of uncertainty in the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and proposes a new aggregation rule to combine the interval-valued information supplied by a team of experts about each Basic Event ( BE). The aggregation leads to an interval which bounds are modell…

Handling the epistemic uncertainty in the selective maintenance problem

Abstract Nowadays, both continuous and discontinuous operating systems require higher and higher reliability levels in order to avoid the occurrence of dangerous or even disastrous consequences. Accordingly, the definition of appropriate maintenance policies and the identification of components to be maintained during the planned system’s downtimes are fundamental to ensure the reliability maximization. Therefore, the present paper proposes a mathematical programming formulation of the selective maintenance problem with the aim to maximize the system’s reliability under an uncertain environment. Specifically, the aleatory model related to the components’ failure process is well known, where…

Multi-skilled human resources allocation in R&D projects

Tool-life modelling as a stochastic process

Abstract In a previous paper [G. Galante, A. Lombardo, A. Passannanti, Proceedings of XXXVII Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society, 1994, p. 553] the Authors proposed to model cutting tool wear behaviour as a stochastic process with independent Gaussian increments plus drift. Such a model implies that the tool-life, i.e. the time to reach a fixed value of flank wear, has an inverse Gaussian probability distribution. The model has several practical and theoretical advantages. In fact, it is based on an easily and cheaply experimentally verifiable wear behaviour hypothesis, it is more flexible because it is not limited to a particular wear level and, finally, the data are bett…

A Multistep Methodology for the Evaluation of Human Resources Using the Evidence Theory

Determination of Pareto frontier in multi-objective maintenance optimization

Abstract The objective of a maintenance policy generally is the global maintenance cost minimization that involves not only the direct costs for both the maintenance actions and the spare parts, but also those ones due to the system stop for preventive maintenance and the downtime for failure. For some operating systems, the failure event can be dangerous so that they are asked to operate assuring a very high reliability level between two consecutive fixed stops. The present paper attempts to individuate the set of elements on which performing maintenance actions so that the system can assure the required reliability level until the next fixed stop for maintenance, minimizing both the globa…