A cost-based failure prioritization approach for selecting maintenance strategies for thermal power plants: a case study context of developing countries

J. Wakiru (), P. N. Muchiri (), L. Pintelon () and P. Chemweno ()
Additional contact information
J. Wakiru: KU Leuven
P. N. Muchiri: Dedan Kimathi University of Technology
L. Pintelon: KU Leuven
P. Chemweno: University of Twente

International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, 2019, vol. 10, issue 5, No 33, 1369-1387

Abstract: Abstract The failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) employing the risk priority numbers (RPN) have been used extensively for identifying and prioritizing failure modes with a view of mitigating their impact on equipment failure. However, in its traditional form, the prioritization approach through the RPN lacks the objectivity required for robust risk assessment, more so, where maintenance data is available, which could enhance such objectivity. This paper extends a quantitative approach for prioritizing failure modes and component failures in facilities, and more specifically, leverages on maintenance data often recorded in such facilities. To enhance the objectivity of the risk prioritization process, the proposed approach integrates three objective measures—the cost of failure, failure occurrence rate and percentage downtime effects of equipment failure. The integrated measures are demonstrated as more robust for prioritizing risks as opposed to ordinal indices as the case in the conventional FMEA approach. Using historical maintenance records, a three-step ranking approach is proposed for prioritizing critical failure modes in a thermal power plant where a case study is discussed. Moreover, the study compares the results derived from the prioritization approach with that derived utilizing the conventional RPN method. The comparative study demonstrates the added value of a more objective and quantitative prioritization approach for maintenance decision support. Ultimately, the critical failure modes are evaluated using a decision scheme to allocate appropriate maintenance strategies as the final step of risk assessment (i.e. risk treatment). The proposed approach is viewed as generalizable, intuitive and offering insights to the maintenance practitioners.

Keywords: Cost-based FMEA; Failure mode; Maintenance strategy; Risk prioritization; Design of reliability; FMEA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13198-019-00864-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ijsaem:v:10:y:2019:i:5:d:10.1007_s13198-019-00864-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/engineering/journal/13198

DOI: 10.1007/s13198-019-00864-z

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management is currently edited by P.K. Kapur, A.K. Verma and U. Kumar

More articles in International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management from Springer, The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().