Abstract:
The aim of this study is to compare the aviation derived reliability metric known as the Maintenance Free Operating Period (MFOP) with the traditionally used reliability metric called Mean Time between Failure (MTBF), which has its innate disadvantages in the field of maintenance. This is mainly due to MTBF’s inherent acceptance of failure and the unscheduled maintenance directly associated with it. Moreover, MFOP is successfully applied to a Petrochemicals-specific case study. To date, no other application of the MFOP concept to the Petrochemicals sector is known. In this study, first, an extensive review of the literature is presented. This section covers concepts relevant to the study and helps to contextualize the problem, revealing the major shortcomings of the commonly accepted MTBF metric. Then, for the analysis of MFOP performance of the systems, a methodology that makes use of failure statistics to analyze both repairable and non-repairable systems is presented. Validation makes use of a case study, which applies the MFOP methodology to a system, specifically in the Petrochemicals sector. It was shown that MFOP could be applied to the data obtained from the Petrochemicals sector, producing estimates, which were accurate representations of reality. These findings provide an exciting basis for facilitating a paradigm shift in the mindset of maintenance personnel, setting reliability targets, and dealing with unscheduled maintenance stops.
Machine summary:
com Improving Maintenance Strategy by Physical Asset Management Considering the Use of MFOP instead of MTBF in Petrochemical Farid Najari a, Mohammad Ali Sobhanallahi a,* and Mohammad Mohammadi a a Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran Abstract The aim of this study is to compare the aviation derived reliability metric known as the Maintenance Free OperatingPeriod (MFOP) with the traditionally used reliability metric called Mean Time between Failure (MTBF), which has its innate disadvantages in the field of maintenance.
Wheelhouse (2009) also states a number of items that should be included within a plant asset care plan: • Servicing and Maintenance • Inspection • Shutdowns • Spares Management • Asset Strategy • Performance Monitoring The MTBF is a reliability metric that is often used to describe equipment or system reliability.
Hypothesis The central research question is defined below: Is the use of Maintenance Free Operating Periods a more appropriate reliability metric for the assessment of physical assets in the Petrochemical sector?
The failure distribution of the pumps, Turbine, and Compressor is found and thereafter the relevant MFOP statistical formulas are applied to the distribution, in order to find the maintenance free time of operation, specific for that item.
Probability of achieving MFOP length for Pump 201-A At this point an assumption needs to be made, plotting the data, it can be seen that the system looks like a repairable system with a distinct reliability improvement; it is therefore decided to model the system accordingly.