Performance Assessment of a Maintenance Strategy in a Turbine and Boiler Maintenance Workshop Using Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

Abstract

Equipment availability and reliability have been an important subject matter for many organisations especially in Turbine and Boiler Maintenance Workshops. In light of this, this study intends to assess the performance of the crane maintenance strategy currently used at a Turbine and Boiler Maintenance Workshop using Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) approach. In order to achieve this, the potential failure modes experienced by a crane machine, and the corresponding failure effects were brainstormed by overhead crane maintenance experts. The crane failure occurrence and severity rating and the crane failure detection rating using the current crane maintenance strategy were ascertained. Thereafter, the Risk Priority Score associated with deploying the current crane maintenance strategy was obtained. The result of the FMEA analysis for the crane maintenance revealed that brake failure, oil leak from gearbox, noisy bearings, tripping of auxiliary hoist, main hoist crack, emergency switch failure and power supply trip are the failure modes experienced by the crane considered in this study. Furthermore, the FMEA result revealed an average crane component failure occurrence and severity rating scores of 5.36 and 6.93 respectively while the crane components failure detection rating using the current maintenance strategy averaged to a value of 5.86.