Maintenance strategy based on a multicriterion classification of equipments

• Published in: Reliability engineering & system safety 2006-04, Vol.91 (4), p.444-451
• Main Authors: Gómez de León Hijes, Félix C., Cartagena, José Javier Ruiz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Critical equipment; Criticality; Decision support; Exact sciences and technology; Maintenance; Operational research and scientific management; Operational research. Management science; Reliability; Reliability theory. Replacement problems
• ISSN: 0951-8320; 1879-0836
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2005.03.001

In an industrial plant, the level of maintenance provided to individual equipment is directly related to the availability that is expected from it. Thus, it is hoped that the most critical equipments will not fail or, at least, that any failure will be rapidly detected and corrected in the minimum time possible. Since resources are limited, it is necessary to determine how they should be distributed, so that no important equipment remains neglected while more resources are concentrated on the most critical items. Therefore, it is necessary to classify equipment in an objective way according to its importance. The method of multicriterion classification of critical equipments (MCCE) 2 2 El orden de las iniciales cambia con respecto a las iniciales en castellano (CMEC). , which is described in the present work, allows systematic and detailed quantification of the criticality of all equipment, that is to say, it provides an evaluation of the importance that its correct operation has for the plant. To provide this information, the consequences for a company of any failure in the equipment concerned are analysed. Finally, a real case example of an urban wastewater treatment plant is described, in which the MCCE method is applied.