Reliability-Centered Maintenance Planning based on Computer-Aided FMEA

For proper management of life cycle of machines and manufacturing facilities, it is important to perform appropriate maintenance operations, and to keep machine status for better reuse and recycling opportunity. For this purpose, a virtual maintenance system is very effective, where facility life cycle model is constructed in computer, and reliability and availability of machines are predicted based on usage deterioration modelling. FMEA(Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) is a powerful method to extensively investigate possible machine failure and functional deterioration, and to predict reliability. However it is very time-consuming and tedious to perform FMEA by conventional manual method. In this paper, computer aided FMEA is proposed, and its theoretical basis is discussed. An extended product model is introduced, where possible machine failure information is added to describe used machine status. By applying generic behaviour simulation to extended product models, it is possible to detect abnormal or mal-behaviour of machines under used conditions. Based on this behaviour analysis and extended product models, FMEA process can be performed by computer-aided manner, and can be very efficient to avoid laborious work and possible errors. Based on FMEA results, maintenance planning can be evaluated by simulating life cycle operations of machines and by predicting reliability during operation. For validating the proposed computer-aided FMEA method, several experiments are performed for mechatronics products.