Ques. #1.

Write briefly the expression and analysis of the following:

1.1. Reliability Function

Reliability is the probability that a product, equipment or process will perform its intended
function, without failure, under specific conditions for a specific period of time. Function is
device whose reliability is in question must perform a specific function.
The most frequently used function in life data analysis and reliability engineering is the
reliability function. This function gives the probability of an item operating for a certain
amount of time without failure. As such, the reliability function is a function of time, in that
every reliability value has an associated time value. In other words, one must specify a time
value with the desired reliability value, i.e. 95% reliability at 100 hours. This degree of
flexibility makes the reliability function a much better reliability specification than the
MTTF, which represents only one point along the entire reliability function.

The Reliability Function

The reliability function can be derived using the previous definition of the cumulative density
function. Note that the probability of an event happening by time t (based on a continuous
distribution given by f(x), or f(t) since our random variable of interest in life data analysis is
𝑡
time, or t) is given by: F(t)=∫0,𝛾 𝑓(𝑠)𝑑𝑠

1.2 The Bathtub curve

The bathtub curve is described in nearly every standard reliability . Reliability specialists
often describe the lifetime of a population of products using a graphical representation called
the bathtub curve. The bathtub curve consists of three periods: an infant mortality period with
a decreasing failure rate followed by a normal life period (also known as "useful life") with a
low, relatively constant failure rate and concluding with a wear-out period that exhibits an
increasing failure rate. This article provides an overview of how infant mortality, normal life
failures and wear-out modes combine to create the overall product failure distributions. It
describes methods to reduce failures at each stage of product life and shows how burn-in,
when appropriate, can significantly reduce operational failure rate by screening out infant
mortality failures. The material will be presented in two parts. Part One (presented in this
issue) introduces the bathtub curve and covers infant mortality and burn-in. Part Two
(presented in next month's HotWire) will address the remaining two periods of the bathtub
curve: normal life failures and end of life wear-out.

Figure 1 The Bathtub Curve

The bathtub curve, displayed in Figure 1 above, does not depict the failure rate of a single
item, but describes the relative failure rate of an entire population of products over time.
Some individual units will fail relatively early (infant mortality failures), others (we hope
most) will last until wear-out, and some will fail during the relatively long period typically
called normal life. Failures during infant mortality are highly undesirable and are always
caused by defects and blunders: material defects, design blunders, errors in assembly, etc.
Normal life failures are normally considered to be random cases of "stress exceeding
strength." However, as we'll see, many failures often considered normal life failures are
actually infant mortality failures. Wear-out is a fact of life due to fatigue or depletion of
materials (such as lubrication depletion in bearings). A product's useful life is limited by its
shortest-lived component. A product manufacturer must assure that all specified materials are
adequate to function through the intended product life.

Note that the bathtub curve is typically used as a visual model to illustrate the three key
periods of product failure and not calibrated to depict a graph of the expected behavior for a
particular product family. It is rare to have enough short-term and long-term failure
information to actually model a population of products with a calibrated bathtub curve.
Also note that the actual time periods for these three characteristic failure distributions can
vary greatly. Infant mortality does not mean "products that fail within 90 days" or any other
defined time period. Infant mortality is the time over which the failure rate of a product is
decreasing, and may last for years. Conversely, wear-out will not always happen long after
the expected product life. It is a period when the failure rate is increasing, and has been
observed in products after just a few months of use. This, of course, is a disaster from a
warranty standpoint!

We are interested in the characteristics illustrated by the entire bathtub curve. The infant
mortality period is a time when the failure rate is dropping, but is undesirable because a
significant number of failures occur in a short time, causing early customer dissatisfaction
and warranty expense. Theoretically, the failures during normal life occur at random but with
a relatively constant rate when measured over a long period of time. Because these failures
may incur warranty expense or create service support costs, we want the bottom of the
bathtub to be as low as possible. And we don't want any wear-out failures to occur during the
expected useful lifetime of the product.

1.3. Reliability prediction

Reliability predictions are one of the most common forms of reliability analysis. Reliability
predictions predict the failure rate of components and overall system reliability. These
predictions are used to evaluate design feasibility, compare design alternatives, identify
potential failure areas, trade-off system design factors, and track reliability improvement.

The Role of Reliability Prediction:Reliability Prediction has many roles in the reliability
engineering process. The impact of proposed design changes on reliability is determined by
comparing the reliability predictions of the existing and proposed designs. The ability of the
design to maintain an acceptable reliability level under environmental extremes can be
assessed through reliability predictions. Predictions can be used to evaluate the need for
environmental control systems.

The effects of complexity on the probability of mission success can be evaluated by

performing a reliability prediction analysis. Results from the analysis may determine a need
for redundant systems, back-up systems, subsystems, assemblies, or component parts. MIL-
HDBK-217 (Electronics Reliability Prediction), Bellcore/Telcordia (Electronics Reliability
Prediction) and NSWC (Mechanical Reliability Prediction) provide failure rate and MTBF
(Mean Time Between Failures) data for electronic and mechanical parts and equipment.

A reliability prediction can also assist in evaluating the significance of reported failures.
Ultimately, the results obtained by performing a reliability prediction analysis can be useful
when conducting further analyses such as a FMECA (Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality
Analysis), RBD (Reliability Block Diagram) or a Fault Tree analysis.

The reliability predictions are used to evaluate the probabilities of failure events described in
these alternate failure analysis models

1.4 Maintainability function

A plot of the probability of repair within a time given on the y-axis, against maintenance time
on the x-axis and is useful to predict the probability that repair will be completed in a
specified time.

Maintainability functions are used to predict the probability that a repair, starting at time t =0,
will be completed in a time t.

The maintainability function for any distribution is defined by

𝑡
M (t) =∫0 𝑓𝑅 (𝑡)𝑑𝑡…..(1) Where

t = time,

M (t) =maintainability function,

𝑓𝑅 (t)=probability density function of the repair time

Maintainability functions for various probability distributions are obtained below

1. Maintainability function for exponential distribution

Exponential distribution is simple and straightforward to handle and is quite useful
to represent repair times. Its probability density function with respect to repair times
is defined by

𝑓𝑟 (𝑡) = 𝜇𝑒 −𝜇𝑡 ….(2)

Where 𝑓𝑟 (𝑡) is the repair time probability density function.

𝜇 is the constant repair rate or reciprocal of the mean time to repair (MTTR ), and
t is the variable repair time
Inserting Equation 2 into Equation 1 yields
𝑡 𝑡
M (t) =∫0 𝑓𝑅 (𝑡)𝑑𝑡= M (t) =∫0 𝜇𝑒 −𝜇𝑡 𝑑𝑡…..(3)
=1- 𝜇𝑒 −𝜇𝑡
Where M (t) is the maintainability function for exponential distribution
1
Since 𝜇 = 𝑀𝑇𝑇𝑅

, Equation 3 becomes
M (t) =1- 𝜇𝑒 −𝜇𝑡
1
=1-𝑒 −(𝑀𝑇𝑇𝑅)𝑡 …………(4)
2. Maintainability function for Rayleigh distribution
Rayleigh distribution is often used in reliability studies and it can also be used to represent
corrective maintenance times. Its probability density function with respect to corrective
maintenance times (i.e., repair times) is defined by
𝑡 2
2
𝑓𝑟 (𝑡) = 𝛼2 𝑡𝑒 −(𝛼) ….(5) Where,

𝑓𝑟 (𝑡)Is the repair time probability density function.

T is the variable repair time, and
𝛼 is the distribution scale parameter.
By substituting Equation 5 into Equation 1, we get
𝑡 2 𝑡 2
𝑀𝑟 (𝑡)=∫0 𝛼2 𝑡𝑒 −(𝛼) 𝑑𝑡…..(6)
1 2
𝑀𝑟 (𝑡)=1- 𝑒 −(𝛼)
Where
𝑀𝑟 (𝑡) is the maintainability function for Rayleigh distribution.
3. Maintainability function for Weibull distribution
Sometimes Weibull distribution is used to represent corrective maintenance times,
particularly for electronic equipment. Its probability density function with respect to
corrective maintenance times is expressed by
𝑡 𝜃
2
𝑓𝑟 (𝑡) = 𝛼𝜃 𝑡 𝜃−1 𝑒 −(𝛼) ….(7) where

𝑓𝑟 (𝑡) is the corrective maintenance or repair time probability density function,

t is the variable repair time,
𝜃 is the distribution shape parameter, and
𝛼 is the distribution scale parameter
Substituting Equation 7 into Equation 1 yields
𝑡 𝜃
𝑀𝑤 (𝑡)=1- 𝑒 −(𝛼) ….(8)
where
𝑀𝑤 (𝑡) 𝑖𝑠 the maintainability function for Weibull distribution.
Some maintainability measures and functions are presented below.
Mean time to repair

Mean time to repair (MTTR) is probably the most widely used maintainability measure.

It measures the elapsed time required to perform a given maintenance activity. MTTR

is expressed by

(∑𝑘
𝑖=1 𝜆𝑖 𝐶𝑀𝑇𝑖 )
MTTR= ∑𝑘
Where
𝑖=1 𝜆𝑖

k =number of units or parts,

𝜆𝑖 =failure rate of unit/part i, for i =1, 2, 3,…, k,

CM𝑇𝑖 =corrective maintenance/repair time required to repair unit/part i, for i = 1, 2, 3,…,k

Mean preventive maintenance time

To keep equipment at a specified performance level, performance of preventive

maintenance activities such as inspections, tuning, and calibrations are essential.

Usually, a well-planned preventive maintenance program plays an instrumental role in

reducing equipment downtime and improving its performance.

The mean preventive maintenance time is defined by

(∑𝑚
𝑖=1 𝐹𝑃𝑀𝑖 ×𝐸𝑇𝑃𝑀𝑇𝑖 )
MPMT= ∑𝑚
Where
𝑖=1 𝐹𝑃𝑀𝑖

MPMT=mean preventive maintenance time,

m =total number of preventive maintenance tasks,

FP𝑀𝑖 =frequency of preventive maintenance task i, for i =1, 2, 3,…, m,

ETPM𝑇𝑖 = elapsed time for preventive maintenance task i, for i =1, 2, 3,…, m.

Mean maintenance downtime

Mean maintenance downtime (MMD) may be described as the total time required either to
restore system to a given performance level or to keep it at that level of performance. It is
composed of corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance, administrative delay, and
logistic delay times. The administrative delay time is the system/item downtime due to
administrative constraints. Logistic delay time is the time spent waiting for a required
resource such as a spare part, a specific test, or a facility.

MMD is defined by

MMD =MAMT +LDT +ADT Where

ADT =administrative delay time,

LDT = logistic delay time,

MAMT =mean active maintenance time or mean time needed to perform preventive and
corrective maintenance-associated tasks.

Ques # 2. Discus about the analogy between reliability and maintainability function and also
state the difference.

Reliability: is a product's or system's ability to perform a specific function and may be given
as design reliability or operational reliability. It is the probability that an item will perform
the required function under condition for a stated period of time. It can be termed as the
probability of non-failure in a given period and as such extension of quality in to the domain

Maintainability: Characteristic of design and installation which determines the probability

that a failed equipment, machine, or system can be restored to its normal operable state
within a given timeframe, using the prescribed practices and procedures. Its two main
components are serviceability (ease of conducting scheduled inspections and servicing) and
reparability (ease of restoring service after a failure).

We need maintainability and reliability because of:

 Reliability: -
 Determine the frequency of repair
 Fixes spare of requirement
 Determine loss of revenue
  Maintainability:

 affect training test equipment

 downtime, manpower

The major reason for the interest of reliability and maintainability is the complexity of
machine When we see the analogy of R and M. The interdependence of reliability and
maintainability for three basic reasons:

1. The design and assurance activity required to achieve R and M in many cases are the
same.
2. Maintainability is a parameter that greatly contribute to reliability of the system.
3. Both maintainability and reliability contribute the overall availability of the system.
Availability is achieved by combination of the two parameter and trade of them.

Reliability engineering is a sub-discipline of systems engineering that emphasizes

dependability in the lifecycle management of a product. ... Testability, maintainability and
maintenance are often defined as a part of "reliability engineering" in Reliability Programs.
That means maintainability is under the discipline of reliability.

But the difference of the two terms are:

 Reliability accounts for the time that it will take the component, part or system to fail
while it is operating. ... Therefore, not only is availability a function of reliability, but it is
also a function of maintainability. Table 1 below displays the relationship between
reliability, maintainability and availability.

Availability Maintainability Reliability

Decrease Decrease Constant
Increase Increase Constant
Increase Constant Increase
Decrease Constant Decrease

Ques. #3 Determination of Maintenance plan

1. Maintenance planning
Planning of maintenance jobs basically deals with answering two questions, what and how of
the lob; i.e.” what jobs/ activities are to be done” and “how those jobs and activities are to be
done”. While answering these two questions, many supplementary questions are to be
answered, e.g.” where the job is to be done ” etc. but all these will be helping in developing
“what” and “how ” of the job. As such it is very essential that engineering knowledge must be
applied extensively to maintenance job for development of appropriate job plans using most
suited techniques, tools, materials and special facilities etc.
Planning of job can occur at any stage during the life of a works order or maintenance job.
An indicator in the work order system needs to be able to identify the work order by status of
planning. In this manner works orders requiring parts procedures, documents, skills, or
equipment can easily be focused up on. A work order cannot be considered planned until all
of these have been considered, however, detailed man power planning/deployment is not
done at this stage.
As the job planning forms the basic foundation, over which the efficiency and cost of further
actions depends, persons responsible for job planning should have adequate
qualities/capabilities. Such as knowledge about jobs and available techniques facilities and
resources, analytical ability, conceptual logical ability and judgmental occur age etc.
Maintenance plan can be needed to lay down a rational basis for formulating a program of
preventive maintenance and to provide guidelines for corrective maintenance by the adoption
of the proper maintenance policies for the constituent item and components. Any rational
maintenance plan should be related to the production program of the plant.

2. Maintenance policy
The major maintenance policies which can be classified as corrective and preventive are the
following
i. Fixed time maintenance
ii. Condition based maintenance
iii. Operate to failure
iv. Opportunity maintenance
v. Design out maintenance
1. Fixed time maintenance: The policy is effective where the failure of the item is
clearly time dependent and where the total costs of such replacements are
substantially less than those of failure replacement-repair. The item is expected to
 wear out within the life of unit. Difficulty of collecting statistical data should be
seriously considered.
2. Condition based maintenance: Condition performance monitoring techniques
which are costly in time and instrumentation form the basis for condition based
maintenance. The proper time for preventive maintenance is determined by
monitoring condition/ performance if some parameters that can be monitored are
isolated.
3. Operate to failure: No predetermined action is taken to prevent failure. Corrective
maintenance arises not only when an item is fails but also when indicated by
condition based criteria. The basic task is establishing the basic economic way of
restoring a unit to an acceptable condition. Cost of an availability, time repair with
that of replacement influence the repair replace choice.
4. Opportunity maintenance: This term is used for maintenance action directed at item
other than those that are the primary cause of the repair. Most appropriate for complex
replaceable or continuously operating item of high shut down or unavailability costs.
5. Design out maintenance: The Design out maintenance aims at minimizing and
eliminating the cause of maintenance this requires engineering action rather than
maintenance action. This policies is for areas of high maintenance costs which exist
because of poor design or equipment usage outside its design specifications
3. Determination of Maintenance plan
Many factor affect the selection of a policy appropriate for each item. The plan should be the
best combination of the above policies. Factors that affect the selection of appropriate
program are.
1. A plan should be classified in to unit, item and components.
Classification of items:
Simple replaceable items: specified by manufacturer where maintenance is deterministic and
expensive.
Complex replaceable items: maintenance probabilistic and costly
Non replaceable items: no predetermined maintenance action required
2. acquisition of information which might be relevant to maintenance planning is
essential for every type of plant. The information should be regarding
 Production pattern – continues intermittent
 Nature of the process
 Manufactures maintenance recommendation actions, periodicities ……….
 Equipment’s factors failure characteristics, meantime to failure mode of failure
 Economic factors
 Safety factor internal, environmental, stationery regulation.
4. Organization of Maintenance resource
Maintenance organization can take an infinite number of forms, the best form for particular
situation being determined by systematic consideration of the influencing factors of
organization of Maintenance resource for a multi trade maintenance work load is a difficult
managerial problem which involves three areas of organization decision making
1. Those concerned with the mix location, and size of the maintenance resource
2. Those concerned with the nature and type of administrative procedures
3. Those concerned with the type of work planning and scheduling system necessary to
match the level and supply of resources to the work load
1. Maintenance resource structure
The objective is to setup the mix, location and sizes of the resources which will best respond
to the expected maintenance workload. The workload in general falls in to two categories.
a. Deterministic work load: those which can be planed and scheduled in the long term.
b. The probabilistic load: those which can be scheduled in the short term.
The fluctuating nature of the later makes the organization of maintenance resource a difficult
one.
Trade force mix: the work load is usually divided according to trade in addition to the above
classification. This demarcation influences the range of plant equipment that can be
effectively dealt with by an individual tradesman. This demarcation increase the number and
type gags, make more difficult the achievement of high labor utilization, and render work
planning more difficult due to the complexity of trade coordination.
Trade force location: the trade force location must reduce the time of plant unavailability,
 If the work load is widely distributed and contains a large proportion of high cost
emergency maintenance, permanent decentralization of the trade force reduces the
cost both direct and indirect.
 For a localized work load centralization of the maintenance improves utilization of
resources.
 For infrequent, but anticipated, highly specialized work, the use of contract labor must
be considered.
Trade force size: if the work load is deterministic, it is not difficult to determine the best size
of the trade force. However, in most manufacturing situation the work load usually contain
large probabilistic components. The basic aim should be to achieve a trade force size and
structure which will minimize the total cost of labor and waiting time. Utilization of trade
force needs to be optimized.
2. Administrative structure:
 There is no ideal administrative structure for maintenance
 The administrative structure should be designed in conjunction with and to suit the
resource structure.
In general maintenance administrative structure is based on division of the work in to
specialization including centralized planning function. Such an administrative structure is
shown below.

Main function of the maintenance manager is to

1. Set maintenance objectives and determine maintenance policy
2. Assist with technical advice and decision making
3. Assist with medium term work planning and scheduling
4. Look after day to day personal problems
5. Steps of job planning
The main steps to be followed for proper job planning are, generally as follows.
1. Knowledge base: it includes knowledge about equipment, job, available techniques,
material and facilities etc. The planner should have through understanding of work
order requirement and should know and refers to.
 Correct equipment number and code
 Equipment symptom and failure analysis report
 Drawings, instruction manuals, and maintenance manuals, including, assembly,
dismantling, and packing instruction.
 Job manuals experience of same or similar machines etc.
2. Job investigation at site: it gives clear perception of the total job and also helps in
ascertaining the following.
 Physical access and space limitation
 Assessing if available lifting and handling tackles
 Facilities for disposal of water, oil, gases, and other hazardous materials
 Space for keeping the dismantled part and safety enclosure for machine under repair
 Proximity of other jobs going on at the same time etc.
3. Identify and document the work: knowing earlier two steps and knowing the need of
preventive, corrective and other maintenance job a complete job work list is to be
made. Pending and left over jobs from the previous schedules may also be included.
the planner often consults concerned operating and maintenance personnel’s and pdm
and cbm inspectors also for any special problems and cross checking.
4. Development of repair plan: preparation of step by step procedures which would
accomplish the work with the most economical use of time, manpower and material.it
may include sketches, line diagram and networks. for first time jobs, provision of still
and video photography can also be planed before starting the job and during critical
dismantling.
5. Preparation of tools and tackles and facilities list:
6. Estimation of time required to do the job:
7. Work order feedback forms/plan:
6. Work planning and scheduling
The objective of work planning and scheduling is to get the right resource to the right place,
to do the right job in the right way and at the right time to carry out the function at minimum
overall cost.
In designing a maintenance work planning some basic rule should be observed. The most
important of these are as follows
1. The work planner must have the authority to make the necessary decision.
2. The work planner must have the right information atat the right time about both the
work load and the resource.
3. The areas of and lines of communication between the planning levels must be clearly
defined.
 7. Spare inventory control
The objective of Spare inventory control is the minimization of the sum of the associated
cost. Direct and indirect.
 Direct costs could be reduced to zero totally eliminating spare holding. The
consequence in availability is obvious and hence affecting the indirect costs.
 On the other hand, plant availability greatly increase if large number of every spare
items were always held, but them direct costs would be enormous
Complicating factor: is complicated by many factors. The factors arise from
 Complexity of many items
 These have widely ranging costs
 different usage rate
 Different failure rate
 Variable delivery dates
 Deterioration of stocks
Spare inventory could be divided in to three
1. Insurance inventory
2. Manually controlled inventory
3. Automatically controlled inventory
4.1. What do you know about work equipment?

Work equipment is almost all equipment used by a worker at work including

 Machines such as circular saws, drilling machines, photocopiers, mowing machines,

tractors, dumper trucks and power presses.
 Hand tools such as screwdrivers, knives, handsaws and meat cleavers
 Lifting equipment’s such as lift trucks, elevating work platforms, vehicle hoists,
lifting slings and bath lifts
 Other equipment’s such as ladders and water pressure cleaners

4.2. What do I need to do for?

 Look at all the equipment in use, what can cause risks and how
 Consider what can be done to prevent or reduce these risks
 Cheek whether any of these measures are in place already
 Decide whether more needs to be done
  Then do it! The following information may help you decide what to do.

4.3. What risks are there for using work equipment?

Many things can cause risks, for example

 Using wrong equipment for the job eg.leaders instead of access towers for an
extended job at high level
 Not fitting adequate guards on the machines, leading to accidents caused by
entanglement, shearing, crushing, trapping or cutting
 Not fitting adequate controls, or the wrong types of controls, so that equipment can
not be turned of quickly and safely, or start accidentally
 Not properly maintaining guards, safety devices, controls etc so that machines
become unsafe.
 Not providing right information, instruction and training for those using the
equipment
 Not maintaining work equipment, or carrying out regular inspection and thorough
the examinations
 Not providing the personal protective equipment needed to use certain machines
saelyeg chainsaws, angle grinders

4.4. What can I do to reduce the risks?

 Using the right equipment for a job

 Make sure machinery is safe
 Hiring out work equipment
 Guard dangerous parts of the machine
 Select the right controls
 Use mobile work equipment safely
 Make sure hand tools are safe
 Make sure machinery and equipment are maintained a safe condition
 Carrying out maintenance work safely
 Instruct and train employees

4.5. What do the precautions mean in practice?

Accidents using the following equipment are common in small firms, but they can be
prevented by following some simple rules.

Ladders

 T0 prevent accidents
Avoid working from ladders if possible;
Ensure ladders are securely placed and fixed and secure and stable during
use;
Prevent the ladder from moving by tying it off securely, using an anti-slip
device or asking someone else to foot it;
Avoid climbing with load and attach tools etc. to your work belt;
Do not use poorly ladders happen during short jobs. They are often used
when it would be safer to use other equipment such as a mobile elevating
work platform.