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MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
Wolfgang Ansorge
Reliability
Availability
Maintainability
Safety
In
ScientificTechnical
Projects
January 2000
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Table of Contents
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Scope
Introduction
Reliability
Availability
Maintainability, and
Safety
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Despite the fact that the basic RAMS technologies were already established nearly a
generation ago, the attempt to achieve high level reliability, availability, maintainability
and safety was in the past very often limited to the aerospace and military industries and to
complex industrial systems. Today the world-wide competition, the increasing system
complexity leading to high investment and operation and support costs, and the decreasing
financial budgets promote the wider distribution of the RAMS technologies and their
application also by industries reluctant in the past to apply these resources and efforts
saving techniques.
The RAMS characteristics are by their very nature closely connected with each other. For
an unreliable product the maintenance support and the number of necessary maintenance
activities will be high in order to keep the product in an operational condition and available
for its intended use. Failures of the product or hazardous maintenance operations may
impair the operators health and safety. Modifications of one of these characteristics in any
direction have an immediate impact on the other three RAMS characteristics.
Predetermining and influencing the RAMS performance characteristics of a product during
its design and development phase is quite a frequently used method in commercial serial
production industries, to influence the products lifetime, the production costs and thereby
indirectly also the production quantity and the profit the company makes with that specific
product, e.g. the lifetime of washing machines is perfectly controlled, and spare parts and
maintenance activities are main income sources for car manufacturers and service stations.
RAMS performance characteristics not only influence the life cycle costs and usability of
the commercial serial products. They are equally important to facilities and equipment of
scientific research programmes, where the achievement of the scientific goals and the
efficiency of the research programme depend to a large extent on the high availability of
the facilities and equipment at affordable costs.
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Definitions
In the following some basic definitions and explanations are given to create a common
basis for the understanding of this document.
Acquisition Phase : The first part of the product life cycle covering the
- Concept and Definition Phase
- Manufacturing Phase, and the
- Installation Phase
MTBF
* 100%
MTBF + MTTR
MTBF is the mean time between failures, and MTTR is the mean time to repair
Operational Availability: Operational availability is similar to inherent availability but includes the effects of maintenance delays and other non-design
factors. The equation for operational availability Ao is:
Ao =
MTBM
MTBM + MDT
where MTBM is the mean time between maintenance, and MDT is the mean
downtime.
Note that MTBM addresses all maintenance, corrective and preventive, whereas
MTBF only accounts for failures. MDT includes MTTR and all other time
involved with downtime, such as delays. Thus, Ao reflects the totality of the
inherent design of the product, the availability of maintenance personnel and
spares, maintenance policy and concepts, and other non-design factors, whereas
Ai reflects only the inherent design.
1
2
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Life Cycle: The time interval from products inception until its ultimate
disposal and removal from use.
Life Cycle Costs: The summary of all costs associated with procurement of a
product, its operation and maintenance and its disposal.
Maintainability4: The relative ease and economy of time and resources with
which an item can be retained in, or restored to, a specified condition when
maintenance is performed by personnel having specified skill levels, using
prescribed procedures and resources, at each prescribed level of maintenance
and repair. In this context, maintainability is a function of design.
Product Support: A collective term for all operation and RAMS activities
performed for operation, maintenance and disposal.
Reliability: The probability that an item will perform its intended function for a
specified interval under stated conditions.
Safety5: The freedom from those conditions that can cause death, injury
occupational illness, or damage to or loss of equipment or property, or damage
to the environment.
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Concept and
Definition Phase
Manufacturing
Phase
Installation
Phase
Operation &
Maintenance Phase
Disposal
Phase
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The above flow diagram illustrates the life cycle phases definition6 as used today with
some minor differences in the nomenclature in nearly all modern industries and
international standards and norms. Since these definitions are of too general nature for the
purposes of this document some more details will be used in the following text.
Project Activities
Definition of valid,
complete, achievable
needs, operation
constraints & modes,
interfaces, resources
Project Phase
INITIAL PLANNING
PHASE
RAMS Activities
Definition of
expected life time
failure classification
reliability, MTBF
acceptable downtimes
available resources
CONCEPT
DEFINITION
Preliminary reliability,
maintainability and safety
analyses of alternative
concepts
Requirement definition &
allocation for selected
concept
RAMS Program & Plan for
subsequent phase
DESIGN &
DEVELOPMENT
PHASE
6
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The Initial Planning Phase is the very beginning, the start of a project and the initiation of
a new product. A valid need for a product that shall help to solve an existing problem is
formulated by the scientist or group of scientists. Together with the functional performance
needs other characteristics like interfaces, operational scenario etc. are defined. The clear
definition of the needs is fundamental for the success of the project. How can a product
meets the original needs if this needs are not carefully defined ? And if the product does
not meet the real needs, the money spent to build the product is wasted.
During this phase first thoughts have to be spent on the requirements reliability,
availability, maintainability and safety performance characteristics. Not just the functional
characteristics should be of interest, but also the operational, administrative and financial
aspects for the long operation phase. What is the affordable effort to keep the product in
operational and safe status? Already at this stage a RAMS expert must be consulted to help
to investigate and to define carefully relevant factors like
An extensive sense of reality and of financial consequences is necessary in order not to kill
the project already at this stage due to excessive requirements leading to an explosion of
the necessary financial budget. Also unrealistically low reliability requirements or no
requirements at all concerning the maintainability and safety of the product will lead although not immediately at this status of the project to a catastrophic situation at the
beginning of the operational phase if not before when it turns out that more time and
money have to be spent for keeping the system operational than for the main purpose, the
production of scientific data at a high production rate.
The subsequent requirement analysis and review work is an important interim task to
consolidate the defined needs and to prepare the first system specification.
The Concept Definition Phase -also called Preliminary Design Phase- is the period of
searching for, and establishing of alternative concepts for the product. Trade studies and
the different proposed concepts have to be analysed (preliminary analyses) with respect to
the fulfilment of the reliability, availability, maintainability and safety performance
requirements.
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c. Chapter Safety
This chapter shall specify requirements to preclude or limit hazards to personnel and
equipment. To the extent practical, the requirements shall be imposed by citing
established legislation, and recognised standards. Limiting safety characteristics
peculiar to the item due to hazard in assembly, disassembly, test, transport, storage,
operation and maintenance shall be stated. Fail-safe and emergency operations shall
be included where applicable. These shall include interlocks and emergency circuits
required either preventing injury or providing recovery of the equipment in the event of
failure.
The definition of these characteristics is a task to be performed in close co-operation with
systems engineering in order to reflect the real operational needs, and to be able to identify
those kinds of deviations of the product from its normal operating which are considered as
failure or fault situation. A failure of one measurement channel might not be considered as
a failure of the complete product, if e.g. another channel with lower accuracy can be used
instead.
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In the case of different operational modes, one possible way to be able to use the product
even if one particular mode is not working anymore, is to switch to another operational
mode and/or to use the system for alternative scientific activities (operation scheduling).
When specifying the related requirements, utmost care has to be taken not to over-specify
them. The requirements should reflect realistic needs and state of the art technology. A
correct and complete specifying process includes also the definition of those methods and
procedures necessary for demonstrating in all project phases, that the product meets or is
capable to meet the specified performance requirements.
The main RAMS engineering activity during this project phase are the analysis of the
different proposed concepts and the support of the design and system engineers for finding
the optimum solution. The main task of the RAMS Project Manager is to define and plan
in close co-operation with the responsible project managers the future system and
subsystem level RAMS activities, the work procedures and processes to be applied, and the
required financial and other resources. Depending on the size and complexity of the
product, the RAMS activities will be planed in form of a separate document :
Reliability and Availability Programme Plan
Maintainability Programme Plan
System Safety Programme Plan
or the subjects will be merged into one single System RAMS Program Plan. In relatively
small projects it might be more convenient to include the RAMS activities in the normal
project planning.
Since all the plans serve the same purpose, namely to define, manage and execute the
necessary RAMS work in the most efficient and economic way, they use similar basic
layouts and table of contents :
Basic approach
Organisation and responsibilities
List of Activities
a) What has to be done ?
b) Why is the activity necessary ?
c) Who is responsible ?
d) Which procedure has to be applied ? and
e) What are the expected results ?
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Summary :
At the end of the Concept and Definition Phase the reliability, availability,
maintainability and safety performance characteristics valid for the entire life
time of the product are defined and accepted, based on, and in compliance
with the scientific needs and the intended scientific research activities, and
under strict considerations of the financial and other resources available and
affordable. He characteristics are complemented by a description of the
appropriate compliance demonstration methods applicable to each life cycle
phase. The detailed man-power, schedule and resources planning for an
effective execution of the RAMS tasks completes the RAMS activities of this
phase:
A sound basis for the subsequent Design and Development Phase !
Project Phase
CONCEPT AND
DEFINITION
PHASE
RAMS Engineering
Activities
DESIGN AND
DEVELOPMENT
PHASE
MANUFACTURING
PHASE
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The Design and Development Phase is defined by the IEC Standard 300-2 as :
That product life-cycle phase during which the products hardware and/or
software is created and documented as detailed manufacturing/coding
specifications, and other product documentation such as use and
maintenance instructions produced.
This is the full-scale engineering and development phase for the product that has been
selected and specified at the end of the previous phase. The engineering and development
activities are nearly in parallel analysed and supported by the RAMS engineering process:
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D. Safety Engineering
Preliminary Hazard List
Preliminary Hazard Analysis
Subsystem Hazard Analysis
System Hazard Analysis
Safety Compliance Assessment
Operating and Support Hazard Analysis
Workplace Safety Analysis
Software Hazard Analysis
Some of the above analyses and lists may serve only for the specific purpose they are
performed for, like a workplace safety analysis or maintainability analysis. A large fraction
of the results of the analysing work are however of interest to all RAMS disciplines.
Typical analyses of this type are the reliability analyses, the functional analyses or the
FMEAs and FTAs.
Monitoring and control of contractors and subcontractors reliability, maintainability and
safety activities is an important activity of the RAMS Project Manager. The RAMS
programme plans prepared during the Concept and Definition Phase form the basis for
RAMS related internal work as well as for the work of the contractors and subcontractors.
Depending on the type, criticality, complexity, and the technical and financial amount of
the work contracted, and the contractors experiences, separate reliability, maintainability,
and safety related programme plans tailored to the particular subject of the contracted work
have to be prepared by the contractor. These plans should carefully be reviewed by the
clients RAMS Project Manager for compliance with the overall RAMS approach. Also the
results obtained by the contractors during this period should be reviewed to identify any
deviations from the specification and to be able to launch corrective actions on time.
Summary :
The design and development activities and the RAMS engineering are
iterative processes ending with the manufacturing documentation of a
product. If the RAMS programme plans are strictly applied, the functional
performance characteristics of the product and its and agreed life cycle
costs are also during this project phase perfectly under control. Even if it
turns out, that a certain requirement cannot be fulfilled due to technical
problems, financial or schedule constraints, or a combination of these
factors, and the respective requirement has to be changed, the impacts of
the change on the functionality, the operation and maintenance, and the
total life cycle costs are immediately analysed. The results serve a basis for
the project managements decision finding process.
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Manufacturing
Activities
Project Phase
RAMS Engineering
Activities
DESIGN AND
DEVELOPMENT
PHASE
LOWER LEVEL
MANUFACTURING
& INSPECTIONS
Assembly,
Integration
Test
User Training
Acceptance Tests
SUBSYSTEM
LEVEL
AIT
Assembly,
Integration
Test
User Training
Acceptance tests
SYSTEM
LEVEL
AIT
Input to Procurement
Specifications
Incoming Inspections
Definition of inmanufacturing tests
Burn In
Maintainability
verifications
Maintenance training,
Safety verifications
Safety training
Reliability monitoring
programme
Maintainability
verifications
Maintenance training
Safety verifications
Safety training
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There are four fundamental principles for a successful manufacturing of highly reliable
systems and components :
Use standard parts and materials with known reliability wherever possible
Order parts materials and equipment only from well known reliable sources
Use stable and reliable manufacturing methods and procedures whenever possible
Use experienced people to perform the work
These principles do not only reduce the risks due to new parts and materials without any
traceable history. They also increase the confidence in the results of the reliability,
maintainability and safety analyses, and they minimise the in-manufacturing and end-item
inspection and control effort.
Reliability tests of parts and components or even integrated units or subsystems should
normally not be considered in a scientifictechnical project as verification method and
reliability compliance demonstration. They are too expensive and there should actually not
be a need for this kind of tests if the above fundamental principles are carefully considered.
A realistic and practical way to bring the end product into a failure rate stable condition
right from the start of the operation is the execution of Environmental Stress Screening.
Environmental stress screening is a test or a series of tests specially designed to disclose
weak parts and workmanship defects for correction. It should be applied to parts,
components, ... or equipment ... to remove defects which would otherwise cause failure
during higher level testing or early field service.7
The assembly, integration and test periods on subsystem and system levels are the ideal
opportunities to perform operator and user training programmes. Using the operation,
maintenance and safety plans and manuals prepared during the Design and Development
Phase the operation and maintenance staff becomes familiar with the operation and
maintenance activities and with the relevant safety precautions and procedures.
Proper testing at the end of the manufacturing process is an effective means to eliminate
material and workmanship defects before shipping the equipment to the installation site.
However,
from MIL-STD-785
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Summary :
Starting with the Manufacturing Phase the RAMS activities change from
theoretical, analytical, and specifying work to practical, verifying,
reassurance work. From now on detected non-compliances result if not
accepted- in expensive and time consuming hardware and/or computer
software changes. Therefore the results obtained from the RAMS activities
of the previous phases have to be sound, realistic and without ambiguities.
Excellent co-operation and information flow with all participants including
the contractors and subcontractors are essential.
A perfectly functioning Failure Reporting and Corrective Action System
combined with a well functioning Configuration Control System and a
well organised Quality Assurance System are a fundamental prerequisite
to avoid undetected and not acceptable alterations of the reliability,
availability, maintainability or safety characteristics, and to keep also
during this phase the functional performance characteristics and thereby
the life cycle costs under control.
Project Phase
RAMS Engineering
Activities
MANUFACTURING
PHASE
Installation
Tests
Preparation for operation and maintenance
Operation, maintenance, safety training
PRODUCT
INSTALLATION
& TEST
PRODUCT ACCEPTANCE
AND TRANSFER OF
OWNERSHIP
RAMS-CON
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
No intensive reliability engineering work is related to this phase, except the review of noncompliance reports, change requests, etc.
From the maintenance and the associated logistic support point of view this phase is quite
important. It includes the preparational work for the subsequent operation and maintenance
phase, like storing of spare parts and maintenance support equipment, setting up of the
maintenance organisation and crew, implementation of work schedules, safety plans and
procedures, etc.
Summary:
The acceptance of the product by the client and the handing over of the
product are legally important acts. Not only that the client becomes the
owner of the product, the client is from this moment on totally responsible
for the correct and safe operation and maintenance of the product in
accordance with the plans, instructions and manuals delivered by the
supplier as part of the product.
For non-serial systems and products of prototype characteristic, like
large complex facilities for scientific research, the deliverable
documentation must include a status list (Configuration Item Data List)
showing the actual configuration status of the product at the moment of the
acceptance by the client. Any modification of this status by the client/user
after the acceptance without formal agreement by the supplier may free the
supplier from his liability for the product.
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Project Phase
RAMS Engineering
Activities
PRODUCT ACCEPTANCE
AND TRANSFER OF
OWNERSHIP
OPERATION &
MAINTENANCE
UPDATINGS
&
MODIFICATIONS
Monitoring of RAMS
evolution of characteristics
Improvements where
necessary
corrective maintenence
Selection of adequate
equipment for replacements
Assesment of proposed
modifi
ations with respect to
RAMS
DISPOSAL
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The generally very long lifetime of large and complex research facilities leads automatically to necessary updates of equipment because the old equipment is outdated, a new
equipment with increased performance characteristics will drastically reduce the research
efforts, and similar. Computers and their increasing speed and memory capacities are a
typical example. But not all equipment which is on the market and promise to do miracles
is adequate for fulfilling the availability demands and/or other RAMS characteristics. In
this context reference is made to one of the four fundamental principles mentioned in
chapter 4.2.4 Manufacturing. use only parts and materials with known, verified reliability
characteristics.
Even if spare parts are provided for equipment which was specially designed and
manufactured for the product, replacement problems will occur in 5, 10. 15 years. The
originally used technologies are not available anymore, the original supplier does not exist
anymore, etc.. This means, that in order to guarantee the specified availability of the
product for the entire life time, modification programmes have to be initiated relatively
early in the operation and maintenance phase. Their starting date depends on one hand on
the critical life time of the equipment but on the other hand also on the general evolution of
the technologies used in the original equipment.
Summary :
Modifications, modernisation, updates, and equipment replacements, as
well as adaptations to changing research goals have to be considered from
the beginning of a project although these aspects may only become
relevant in 5 years or later. In a period of 5 years two or three generations
of new computers and associated parts and materials will be on the market.
To find spare components for the old equipment will not be trivial. A
close monitoring of the failure occurrence frequencies, and the
implementation of special update programmes to be able to start
procurement activities well in advance of increasing failure rates are
mandatory parts of the overall maintenance planning.
Since product modifications and updates will occur during the long life
time Configuration Management and Control must be performed by owner
to keep the product safety and consequently the safety of the user and
maintenance personnel in a controlled status. It goes without saying that all
modifications need to be analysed and approved by RAMS experts.
Provisions have to be taken in advance to make sure, that not only a
general RAMS expert is available, but an expert familiar with the product,
the specific product (logistic) support, and the constraints generated by the
scientific programmes and the environment of scientific institutes.
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The most elegant and advanced solution is to answer these questions already during the
Concept and Definition Phase and to include corresponding requirements in the product
specification. Thereby everybody involved in the procurement is forced to take the
disposal already into account during the design and development phase, and to generate
safe, efficient and economic methods and procedures for activities which will be
performed in the far future.
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