0000000000092297

AUTHOR

S. Carpitella

Prioritization of maintenance actions in water distribution systems

[EN] Industrial water distribution systems are paramount in many manufacturing systems to optimise the related industrial plant availability and consequently the level of production. They also play an important part in keeping right standards of hygiene of workplaces and machines. A strategic action of planning and implementing of suitable maintenance activities is necessary to assure the standards previously described. The present contribution proposes the prioritization of maintenance actions for industrial water distribution systems through a multi-criteria decision making approach, since some of the elements integrated in maintenance-related aspects are not easily quantifiable and, on t…

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Integrating the human factor in FMECA-based risk evaluation through Bayesian networks

The contribution of the present paper aims to develop the traditional Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) for quantitative risk analysis from a Bayesian Network (BN)-based perspective. The main purpose of research consists in providing a framework for analysing causal relationships for risk evaluation and deriving probabilistic inference among significant risk factors. These parameters will be represented by linguistic variables and will include the human factor as a key element of analysis. Traditional approaches for risk evaluation and management performed by FMECA [1] represent helpful tools to globally enhance systems and processes conditions [2]. However, such appro…

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Some consistency issues in multi-criteria decision making

The complexity of decision-making problems included under the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) paradigm has favored the proliferation of many schools of thought and varied methodologies. It has not yet been possible to prove the supremacy of any of these approaches. Moreover, in some cases it is difficult to combine the theoretical validity of the approximations with their practical appropriateness. It seems that rigor and applicability are two opposing concepts, something that should not be so. It is our responsibility to bridge the gap. To reduce the gap between theory and practice and use effective methodological approaches, it is necessary to combine the rigor and objectivity of tr…

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The ELECTRE I method to optimise GPR data processing analyses for maintenance of water networks

Management of water supply systems (WSSs) can be effectively pursued by means of data processing techniques based on Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) image mining. This approach enables to collect different graphical representations of WSS buried elements on the basis of which planning maintenance interventions, with the objective of improving the overall condition of the system. This paper proposes to support this kind of techniques by means of a multi criteria decision making (MCDM) point of view. In particular, the ELECTRE I method is suggested to treat results coming from the application of different techniques. A real case study is applied with relation to a set of four alternatives, whi…

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Improved pairwise comparison transitivity using strategically selected reduced information

To judge the mutual relationship among elements, pairwise comparisons (PC) are widely used in decision modelling. PC is especially useful when the involved elements are intangible. Frequently, the number of elements to be compared may be very large. When dealing with n elements, the number of PCs is, under the reciprocity hypothesis, n(n − 1)/2. PCs are compiled in so-called pairwise comparison matrices (PCM). In the presence of missing entries due to uncertainty or lack of information, decision-making must be performed from the available incomplete information. Making all the comparisons in the complete case may be tedious, strenuous and time-consuming for the actors, may blur the body of …

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