Equipment redesign feasibility through maintenance-work-order records using fuzzy cognitive maps

Initiation of maintenance-work-order (MWO) by maintenance-planning unit drives maintenance activities, as it authorizes this work to be carried out. The MWO contains information on resource requirements besides specifying the time-frame for work completion. On conclusion of the maintenance actions, it is experienced that these and other maintenance parameters vary appreciably from their envisaged values. These deviations and the status of dismantled equipment are recorded in the MWO. The objective of this paper is to identify the parameters, which have a potential for design-change. It demonstrates the use of fuzzy cognitive maps to extract the desired knowledge from the MWO records. The study concluded that the MWOs, which recorded a high degree of cognitive values for surface/material failure, deviation in equipment settings and the extent of repairs carried out on the equipment do have a high degree of potential for redesign. The analysis also concluded that a high degree of time to maintain and quantum of spares used may not be critical for immediate design modifications. This will help to identify the MWOs, which should be sent to the designer for redesign of the equipment. © 2014 The Society for Reliability Engineering, Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM), India and The Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden.