A multidisciplinary, expert-based approach for the identification of lifetime impacts in asset life cycle management

Everyday our lives are dependent on countless physical structures. These assets represent an enormous value for their owners and for society at large. To grasp the full potential of these assets, a deep and thorough understanding of an asset's complete lifetime is needed. Problems with data collection and data quality however limit currently available methods for Asset Life Cycle Management in their potential to deliver such a deep understanding. Therefore, this paper proposes to focus on the identification of lifetime impacts: trends or events that may have a positive or negative influence on the remaining lifetime of the asset. Timely identification of these impacts allows the asset owner to prepare appropriate measures. Based on a literature review and a case study, the paper argues that a multidisciplinary approach employing both quantitative and qualitative information is needed. The Lifetime Impact Identification Analysis (LIAA) method is presented, incorporating technical, economic, compliancy and commercial perspectives on the asset. The method exploits expert-sessions to gather and structure available knowledge into a Lifetime Impact Report. Preliminary test results show that the proposed method is promising to both theory and practic

Initial spare parts assortment decision making for rolling stock maintenance: a structured approach

Design for maintenance and maintenance operations become increasingly important in recent years. In the capital-intensive industry, maintenance expenditures can add up to several times the initial investment. In order to be competitive in their business, owners and users of these capital goods have to take into account the total life cycle cost at investment (the lifespan of a train is about 30 years), the renewal decisions for their installations and the logistic management of the spare parts. Erroneous or unstructured initial spare parts assortment decision-making part of the logistic management can lead to undesired downtime and increases the risk of obsolete or unavailable components. Decision making is further complicated by non- existent data in the early design phase and several information management problems. Based on a case study at NedTrain (the largest maintainer of rolling stock in the Netherlands) and literature review a Decision Support Model to structure and to improve the initial spare part assortment for the rolling stock maintenance is proposed

Lifetime impact identification for continuous improvement of wind farm performance

To become profitable, the cost of offshore windfarms must be reduced. Optimization of the Operations & Maintenance process offers a great potential for cost reductions, especially for existing windfarm. As Continuous Improvement may deliver these cost reductions, this paper aims at fostering CI in the offshore wind industry. In order to identify where to focus CI efforts, we turn to the theory of Asset Life Cycle Management which shows that a shared multidisciplinary understanding of the complete lifetime of a windfarm is critical. Based on a case study at a leading offshore wind farm company, it is concluded that the Lifetime Impact Identification Analysis delivers such a shared understanding by bringing employees from different backgrounds together. Based on this understanding, CI priorities can be set and management may become proactive instead of having to do ‘fire-fighting’

Hardware-in-the-loop performance analysis of a railway traction system under sensor faults

Fault mode and effects analysis (FMEA) has been used during decades for analysing the effects of faults in different applications. Initially, FMEA based on risk priority numbers provided information about the effects in the system, but during the last years different approaches have been developed to obtain a more robust risk evaluation. The proposed enhanced FMEA can provide the quantitative effects of sensor faults in a railway traction drive, in variables such as torque, current and voltages. In addition to the previous work, quantitative effects on overall performance indicators, such as energy efficiency and comfort, are obtained too. Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL)-based fault injection approach has been used to generate fault scenarios. The test platform is composed of a real-time simulator and a commercial traction control unit for a railway application

Evaluation of the lifetime impact identification analysis: two tests in a changeable context

Asset Life Cycle Management aims to maximize the value realized from physical assets over their complete lifetime. Over the years, the operation and maintenance of the assets must continually be adapted to changes in goals and context. In an earlier publication, we proposed the Lifetime Impact Identification Analysis to identify such changes. This paper tests this method through an application at two different companies. The method proved to result in a shared and integral overview of long-term challenges and opportunities for the asset, based on experts discussing the asset's future from a technical, economic, compliance, commercial and organizational perspective