Design for Maintainability

Maintainability
 Maintainability, as a characteristic of design can be
defined on the basis of a combination of the
following factors:
a. Maintenance times
b. Maintenance frequency
c. Maintenance cost
The three factors are dependant on the fact that the
system is operated and maintained in accordance
with prescribed procedures and resources.
Measure of Maintainability
 From a systems perspective
• Corrective maintenance
• Preventive maintenance
 From a software perspective
• Adaptive maintenance
• Perfective maintenance
Maintenance Elapsed -Time Factors
1. Corrective and preventive active maintenance
times
2. Administrative and logistic delay times
3. Total maintenance downtime
Mean corrective maintenance
time(Mct)
• Mean corrective time is a composite value
representing the arithmetic average of the
individual maintenance cycle times(Mcti)
• Mean time to repair(MTTR)
• Basic measure of maintainability
• Sum of corrective maintenance times divided by
the total number of failures within an item
• Average time it takes to fully repair a failed
system
• Includes fault isolation, replacements of failed
item(s) and check out
• Its also called the mean corrective maintenance
time, Mct
Mean Preventive Maintenance Time ( )
• Preventive Maintenance refers to the actions
required to retain a system at a specified level
of performance

• Includes active maintenance time

• Does not include logistic delay and
administrative delay time
Logistics Delay Time (LDT)
a) Refers to maintenance downtime, which is
expended
as a result of waiting for spare part to become
available
b) Waiting for availability of an item of test
equipment in order to perform maintenance,
waiting for transportation and so on
c) LDT does not include active maintenance time
d) It does constitute a major element of total
maintenance downtime (MDT)
 ADT MDT
 Administrative Delay Time (ADT)
• That portion of downtime when maintenance time is
delayed for administrative reasons.
Examples
a) Personnel Assignment Issues
b) Labor Strike
 Maintenance Down Time (MDT)
a) Total elapsed time required to repair or restore
a system to full operational status or to retain
a system in that condition
 MDT includes
• Mean active maintenance time
• Logistics delay time (LDT)
• Administrative delay time (ADT)
Uptime/Downtime Factors
Maintenance Labor Hours
Elapsed time vs. labor hours
Elapsed time reduction via more personnel Can
be
expensive
Maintainability is primarily concerned with ease
and economy of maintainability
Maintenance Labor Hours
a) Important factors in the labor-time element
b) Maintenance labor-hours per system operating
hour
(MLH/OH)
c) Maintenance labor-hours per cycle of system
operation (MLH/cycle)
d) Maintenance labor-hours per month (MLH/month)
e) Maintenance labor-hours per maintenance action
(MLH/MA)
f) Note Any of these factors can be specified in
terms of mean values.
Maintenance Frequency Factors
A. The reliability factors MTBF and ? are the basis
for determining the frequency of corrective
maintenance.
B. Maintainability deals with the design
characteristics necessary to minimize corrective
and preventive maintenance
C. In this area reliability and maintainability
factors should be compatible and mutually
supportive.
Some definitions
Maintenance Frequency Factors
(Continued)
Maintenance Frequency Factors (Continued)

Example:
Consider a communication equipment with an MTBF (where all failures are
considered) of 20 years and has a schedule of maintenance every 6
months, what is the MTBM ? If all failures were measured to determine
the MTBF is safe to assume that MTBFMTBMµ with a MTBMs 0.5 years
 MTBRMean time between replacement a factor of
MTBM refers to all item replacement.
Maintenance Frequency Factors (Continued) In
corrective and schedule maintenance a
replacement of a spare part is not always
necessary.
 A low MTBR will mean a higher frequency of
replacement which in turn will required higher
levels of maintenance support.
 A maintainability objective in system design is
to
 Maximize the MTBR
Maintenance Cost Factors
 Important factor in the total life-cycle cost
 Make design decisions in the early stages of
System Development
 Life-cycle must be considered when defining the
system requirements
 Maintenance Cost Factors
1. Cost-related indices appropriate in system design
2. Cost per maintenance action (/month)
3. Maintenance cost per system operating hour (/OH)
4. Maintenance cost per month (/month)
5. Maintenance cost per mission or mission segment
(/mission)
6. Ratio of maintenance cost to total life-cycle
cost
Related Maintenance Factors
Various logistics factors based from the System
Supply Responsiveness
Test and Support Effectiveness
Maintenance facility availability and use
Transportation modes
Maintenance organizational effectiveness
Related Maintenance Factors
Maintainability Requirements in the
System Life-Cycle
Maintainability in the System Life Cycle
• Maintainability is considered early in the
process
 During the conceptual design phase.
• Requirements developed from feasibility study
1. Qualitative Requirements
2. Quantitative Requirements
• Maintainability testing is included as part of
the overall system test and evaluation activity
 After the physical models are developed and
evaluation process is established.
Maintainability in the System Life
Cycle
System Requirements
 Definition of system performance factors, the
mission profile, and system use requirements.
 Definition of the operational life cycle.
 Definition of the basic system maintenance.
 Definition of the environment in which system
is
expected to operate and be maintained.
Component Selection and Application
o Ensure appropriate accessibility to subsystems
for maintenance.
o Incorporate modularized functional-package
approach.
o Avoid selection of short-life components.
o Incorporate proper identification of components.
Maintainability Analysis Method
Maintainability Analysis: Iterative process of
system synthesis, analysis and evaluation

Tools/Methods Used for Maintainability analysis

1. Reliability-Maintainability Trade-off
Evaluation
2. Reliability-Centered Maintenance
3. Repair versus Discard Analysis
4. Maintenance Prediction
5. Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA)
Maintainability Analysis Method
Reliability- maintainability trade off Evaluation

Reliability The probability that a system will perform in a satisfactory manner for a given
period when used under specified operating conditions.
E.g. Equipment A MTBF = 100 hrs
Equipment B , MTBF =125 hrs
o Reliability of equipment B is higher.
Maintainability It is the ability of a product
to be maintained
E.g. Equipment A Mct =2 hrs, Equipment B Mct = 3 hrs

o maintainability of the equipment A is

higher
Example

Requirement: To replace an existing equipment item with a new

item for the purpose of improving operational effectiveness.

Alternatives: 3 different design configurations

are available

Evaluation: Reliability-Maintainability- Cost > decision

Result :
Configuration A satisfies reliability maintainability with least cost.
Maintainability Analysis Method
Reliability- Centered Maintenance(RCM)

 Cost-effective preventive maintenance program

 Best initiated during the early process
 RCM analysis leads to specification for preventive maintenance or
recommendation for redesign

Repair Versus Discard Analysis

It is economically feasible to repair certain items and/or to discard certain when

failure occur.
Maintainability Prediction
o Maintainability Predictions are done
periodically
at different stages in the design process.
o Predictions of the MTBM, Mct, Mpt, MLH/OH,
and so
on, are made and compared against the
requirements identified earlier in the
Maintainability Allocation Process.
o Areas of noncompliance are evaluated for
possible
design improvement.
Prediction of Mean Corrective Maintenance
Time (MCT)

• Determining maintenance tasks and the associated elapsed time in

progressing from one element to another. The breakdown include
subsytems, units, assemblies,subassemblies and parts.
• Maintainability subtask such as localization, isolation, access, repair,
and checkout, based on the characteristics incorporated in the
design.
Prediction of Maintenance Resource Requirements

Resources in this instance include the personnel and training

requirements, test and support equipment, supply support,
transportation and handling requirements, facilities, computer
software and data needed in the accomplishment of maintenance
action.
Reliability Centered Maintenance
(RCM) is a systematic approach to developing a
focused, effective and cost efficient preventive
maintenance program and control plan for a system
or product. This technique is best initiated during the
early design process and evolves as the system is
develop.
Level of Repair Analysis (LORA)

• It is necessary to determine whether it is economically

feasible to repair certain assemblies or to discard them
when failures occur. If the decision is to accomplish
repair, it is appropriate to determine the maintenance
level at which the repair should be accomplished.
Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA)
The process of evaluating given system configuration
with the following objectives in mind

-identify the resources required for sustaining

maintenance and support of the system through its
planned life cycle such as skill level personnel for
maintenance, spares, repair, parts and inventories.
-provide assessment of the configuration relative to
incorporation of maintainability characteristic in
design
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

• Is an approach for improving the overall effectiveness and efficiency

of a manufacturing plant. The objectives are:
-maximizize the ability of the production process through the
improvement of equipment reliability and maintainability.
-establish life cycle approach in the accomplishment of preventive
maintenance.
-involve all operating departments within manufacturing plant
organization in planning subsequent implementation of maintenance
program.
-involve employees from the plant manager to the workers.
Maintainability Assesment
• as system test are conducted, data collection,
analysis and reporting process should include such
coverage as all of the preventive and corrective
maintenance tasks that are accomplished, task
sequences, task frequencies, task times personnel
labor hours, and the supporting resources are
required in accomplishment of system
maintenance.