Maintenance cost optimization using MCDM tools

Abstract

Various maintenance policies are followed in Industry based upon the criticality of failure of the equipments. These maintenance policies can be broadly classified as Break down Maintenance and Preventive Maintenance . The breakdown or corrective maintenance policy is one that is carried out after the failure of the equipment. This system of maintenance is followed if the failure is not critical and if the down time due to failure of the equipment is not going to cost much. For all other circumstances and to improve the system reliability and availability, the preventive maintenance policy is followed. But this preventive maintenance policy is costly. This study suggests methods of maintenance for industrial machines and other equipments that optimize the cost of maintenance. The details of research work carried out using Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) Tools are discussed in this thesis. Research work 1: Maintenance cost analysis of 4 stroke petrol engine based on Emission Test. This work aims at studying the correlation between the petrol engine emission levels before service and the total cost of petrol engine service. The idea is, if there is a positive correlation then the emissions of the engine can be used as a predictive tool to work out the cost of maintenance. The study is done at Yamaha service centre. The engine emission parameters such as un burnt HC, NOx, SOx, CO, CO2 and oil temperature are recorded using Multi Gas Analyzer for two wheelers given for service. The data on total cost of Engine Service is obtained after service. Multiple Regression analysis is done between the Emission levels and the cost of Maintenance using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) package. It is revealed that there exist no correlation between the emission level and the maintenance cost. newline