Title: Failure reduction in manufacturing systems through the risk management approach and the development of a reactive maintenance model

Authors: P. Karuppuswamy, G. Sundararaj, S.R. Devadasan, D. Elangovan, L. Savadamuthu

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Vattamalai palayam, NGGO Colony Post, Coimbatore, 641 022, Tamilnadu, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, P.S.G. College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, P.S.G. College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tamilnadu College of Engineering, Coimbatore, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Ramakrishna Polytechnic College, Coimbatore, India

Abstract: Maintenance and failure costs of production machines increase the overall operating cost of a manufacturing organisation and will reduce the profit margin. Hence, management is interested in minimising the resources allotted to these non-productive activities. This work includes a case study, wherein the failures of a plastic injection moulding machine are examined. The reactive maintenance model (RMM) is developed in which risk management technique (RMT) is used to analyse the causes of the failures. Corrective measures are taken to avoid failures and a suitable preventive maintenance (PM) programme is followed to keep the machines in working condition. The loss before and after implementing the RMM is compared using Taguchi|s loss function. In this paper, the analysis, development of maintenance model, implementation and results of implementation of the model are presented.

Keywords: failure reduction; fault tree analysis; loss function; risk management; reactive maintenance; manufacturing costs; machine failures; maintenance; injection moulding; preventive maintenance; Taguchi methods.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAM.2006.009553

International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 2006 Vol.6 No.4/5/6, pp.545 - 564

Published online: 21 Apr 2006 *

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