Evaluating Reliability of equipment: The Role of Normal Distribution in Analyzing Equipment Lifetimes

Abstract

The primary challenge confronting the railway industry is the accessibility of passenger and freight vehicles. Corrective maintenance remains widespread, which means that, without proper maintenance, equipment can be used beyond its optimum service life. This leads to increased breakdowns, operational inefficiencies and unforeseen repair costs. Moreover, most maintenance practices follow a periodic approach (systematic preventive maintenance), which fails to adequately consider the actual condition of components. For these reasons, this study aims to develop a predictive maintenance strategy using a failure database from 2023, which includes an analysis of 420 railway vehicles. The study aims to show the effectiveness of the analysis of reliability data based on the normal distribution. The results underline the importance of estimating the remaining useful life of critical components, in particular the wheels, as well as the implementation of predictive maintenance to ensure safety, optimize maintenance schedule and improve availability by guaranteeing the efficiency of maintenance operations.