Maintenance Opportunity Planning System

Abstract

Timely performance of preventive maintenance (PM) tasks is a critical element of manufacturing systems. Since the majority of PM tasks requires that equipment be stopped, these tasks can generally only be performed during nonproduction shifts, breaks, or other scheduled downtime. Thus, there is a trade-off between time dedicated to production and time available for preventive maintenance. One approach to mitigate this trade-off is to perform maintenance during scheduled production time by strategically shutting down equipment for short time periods. This research developed a systematic method on when to shut down equipment to do maintenance in an automotive assembly environment. It is called maintenance opportunity. The method incorporated real-time information about production and machine failure conditions. A simulation-based algorithm is developed by utilizing the buffer contents as well as machine starvation and congestion to obtain maintenance opportunities during production time.

Exploiting Deterministic Maintenance Opportunity Windows Created by Conservative Engineering Design Rules That Result in Free Time Locked Into Large High-Speed Coupled Production Lines With Finite Buffers

“…However, all the previous MOW models that have been analytically developed [1,2,3,4] can only deal with deterministic systems. For example, cycle times are assumed to be constant and fixed, and there are no random downtimes in the system.…”

“…The concept of 'maintenance opportunity windows' (MOW) has been defined [1], and analytical algorithms and simulation-based calculations of MOWs have been provided by analysing the relationships between the number of buffer occupancies and cycle times in small buffer systems. However, all the previous MOW models that have been analytically developed [1,2,3,4] can only deal with deterministic systems.…”

“…This is because buffers in transfer lines are almost depleted, and any stoppages before the line recovers its nominal capacity will jeopardise the intended favourable flow of production. To overcome such uncertainties and high risks, earlier researchers [1,3] have suggested using simulation models that can handle uncertainties to calculate MOWs.…”

“…The sleep free time for machines following the bottleneck machine M4 is the sum of the sleep free time at the bottleneck machine (3,1) and all the type-4 sleep free times before the specific type-4 machine being expressed.…”

A literature review on maintenance priority - conceptual framework and directions

“…As such, priority management is used to balance the needs of all party. Maintenance work order priority would have some impact on overall maintenance performance [36]. Maintenance performance could be affected as the consequences of lacking clarity in goals and objective for asset management.…”