A CTA TECHNICA CORVINIENSIS – Bulletin of Engineering

Tome XI [2018] | Fascicule 3 [July – September]

1.
Vlado MEDAKOVIĆ, 2.Bogdan MARIĆ

A MODEL OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR TECHNICAL

SYSTEM MAINTENANCE
1,2.
University of East Sarajevo, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering East Sarajevo, East Sarajevo, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

Abstract: Technical systems for production are increasingly automate, which means that they have to work reliably. Therefore, the
rapidly expanding concept of maintenance, where people would say that maintaining a process that allows the management of
the technical condition and reliability during the entire life cycle of the system. Traditionally, maintenance has been considered as
a support function, non-productive and not a core function adding little value to business. However it has been noticed that many
manufacturing industries have used various approaches to improve maintenance effectiveness. An analysis of the problem of
machines and industrial systems maintenance as well as maintenance strategies and maintenance management process is
presented in this paper. Furthermore, a development process of traditional and modern maintenance management information
system is given. The possibility of development maintenance management, applying decision support systems and expert
systems, are presented, at the end.
Keywords: Maintenance, Information system, Decision Support Systems, Expert systems

INTRODUCTION ensures proper operations and smooth internal logistics. The

Maintenance of technical systems must ensure that all decision on the required maintenance concept and a
technical systems fulfill their function with as little downtime thorough and easily accessible technical knowledge are
as a longer life cycle and with less maintenance costs. crucial here [13].
Surroundings, in which the maintenance system builds, is The growing importance maintenance of technical systems
certainly a production, business or other process or system in the last decades of the twentieth and beginning of the
(housing facilities, communication etc.). twenty-first century is related to the mass automation,
In the work [9] is benchmarking of real estate performance is computerized and robotization in all areas of industry and
a commonly used tool in the efficient and sustainable requirements for reliable operation of such systems as a
maintenance management of existing facilities. Performance prerequisite for the competitive ability of the organization. In
needs to be measured and monitored to support some the industry has long been the number of employees
stakeholders’ core business and maintenance strategies. in maintenance is greater than the number of employees in
Many of the performance indicators used to measure real production, at the same time and with higher level of
estate are based on the area of the maintained property. professional engineering knowledge.
Maintenance can be defined as a set of actions which are Furthermore, next to the energy costs, maintenance costs can
carried out to replace, repair and service an identifiable set of be the largest part of any operational budget. Yet, the main
manufacturing components, so that the plant continuous to question faced by the maintenance management, whether
operate at a specified level of availability for a specified time. its output is produced more effectively, in terms of
The main objective of Maintenance is to maximize the contribution to company profits and efficiently, in terms of
availability of machinery and equipments for production. manpower and materials employed, is very difficult to answer
Preserve the values of the plant, machinery or equipment by [2].
minimizing wear and deterioration. Accomplish the above Over time, the role of maintenance in the manufacturing
goals most economically on a long term basis. By systematic sector has become increasingly important. Globalized
maintenance it is possible to achieve substantial savings in markets are forcing organizations to compete not only in
money, material and manpower as every effort is directed quality or price, but also in technology, reduced lead times,
towards avoiding catastrophic failures [8]. innovation, reliability and information technology[4].
High-speed technological innovation combined with severe In this information age, data has become one of the most
competition shortens the equipment life cycle and puts important resources to organizations. The effective and
equipment under higher stress. In order to deal with this efficient management of large quantities of data is a common
problem, a company’s strategic investments in production problem found in many industries.
equipment should not only consider cost and capacity, but The study [7] is carried out to design, development and
also technology trends, flexibility, etc. implementation of a computerized maintenance
Another important aspect is maintenance. Proper management information system (CMMIS) according to the
maintenance helps to keep the life cycle cost down and requirements of a medium scale industry, with an intention

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to assist the maintenance and other activities of the industry — Maintenance by reliability, and
in an organized manner. — Total Productive Maintenance.
Reviews overall models for maintenance management from In the first case, the goal is maximum reliability, and in the
the viewpoint of one who believes that improvements can be second case, the maximum economic efficiency where
made by regarding maintenance as a “contributor to profits'' operators assess the state of the system and undertake action
rather than “a necessary evil''. The reasons why maintenance to maintain "when is sufficiently clear" that will reach to failure
is such a “Cinderella function'' are largely historical and can (Japanese philosophy that is applicable eg. in serial
mostly be overcome by new information technology (IT) and production).
its falling cost [10]. Traditional maintenance methodology is:
The paper [11] deals with the topic of facility management — Corrective maintenance,
focusing on maintenance area and its importance for — Prevention maintenance, and
increasing company competitiveness. The importance of — Combined maintenance.
functional company facility management has risen In the second and third case, it is particularly important the
dramatically in recent years. The reason for this is the maintenance by state of the system, with the use of
increased pressure on cost reduction and additional value to diagnostic methods.
the core business of the enterprise. The paper introduces a STRATEGIES OF MAINTENANCE AND MAINTENANCE
current theoretical literature-based framework for this topic MANAGEMENT
in order to examine and analyze the supporting activities and The type and content of the process within the maintenance
processes connected with production facilities and of the system identifies selected method of maintenance
maintenance particularly. (selection of the best models of maintenance). Without a
Maintenance has gained in importance as a support function good strategy and functioning all elements of the process,
for ensuring equipment availability, quality products, on-time the maintenance of the system is not effective. Absence
deliveries, and plant safety. Cost-effectiveness and accuracy achievement of the objective of the system is expected.
are two basic criteria for good maintenance. Reducing During the last decade, many companies have made large
maintenance cost can increase enterprise profit, while investments in the development and implementation of
accurate maintenance action can sustain continuous and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, only a
reliable operation of equipment. As instrumentation and few of these systems developed or installed have actually
information systems become cheaper and more reliable, considered maintenance strategies.
condition-based maintenance becomes an important tool for Maintenance is a complex process that is triggered by
running a plant or a factory [5]. planned periodic repair (scheduled or planned maintenance),
The paper [5] presents a novel condition-based maintenance equipment breakdown or deterioration indicated by a
system that uses reliability-centered maintenance monitored parameter (unplanned or emergency
mechanism to optimize maintenance cost, and employs data maintenance).
fusion strategy for improving condition monitoring, health This process requires planning, scheduling, monitoring,
assessment, and prognostics. quality assurance and deployment of necessary resources
Forecasts of some analysts are that this activity in the twenty- (workshop, manpower, machines, equipment, tools, spare
first century will be one of the most important because of the parts, materials). The proper design and integration of
growing need for rational use of resources. maintenance management into ERP systems enable
Maintenance of technical systems is defined as the process of enterprises to effectively manage their production planning
implementing measures the ensuring properly functioning of and scheduling, as well as to analyze their maintenance
the system with competitive performance and minimum history so as to carry out cost analysis and produce future
duration of interruptions because failures and maintenance projections of failure trends [6].
activities. This is the most general term criterion function Maintenance management using the maintenance strategies
(objective function) the maintenance process. as a set of policies that specify procedures for advance
The state of technical system is changed during exploitation maintenance lick situations based on maintenance planning
and it is stochastic process that describes the probability that and implementation of maintenance plans.
the system will be in properly the state over time ("in the These planned maintenance strategies can be applied in the
work" as opposed to states "in failure" - factual and "In the maintenance by state of the system, monitoring changes of
conditional failure"). the parameters of state of the system and the level of
Activities of maintenance and management of maintenance reliability.
are inevitable because failure of the system during operation, Monitoring the state parameters can be carried out
as a natural occurrence, as a result of the increase entropy of continuously or periodically, and for each parameter will
the system. There are several classifications of maintaining a determine its value and in that way achieve preventive
methodology, and today is considered the most complete maintenance that meets the most practical situations and
one that maintenance is divided into: types of technical systems.

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Maintenance management, however, is a much broader value added information necessary for decision support and
process. It includes activities: decision making [1].
— Forecasting and prediction, The main tasks of the information system are:
— Planning, — Data collection of all relevant events during operation of
— The execution and coordination of maintenance actions, the technical system and its maintenance,
— Control of deadlines and quality performance of — Data processing in order to obtain information for
maintenance actions, diagnosing,
— Control the output achieved performance of the system — Forecasting,
and — Planning,
— Control of maintenance costs and the current — Decision-making,
maintenance and investment maintenance (The — Realization and control of corrective and preventive
investment maintenance is funded from amortization, maintenance.
while the current maintenance is financed as and The information is used to manage the supply of spare parts,
production). cost, training workers to increase the reliability of the whole
Maintenance Planning is the key function of maintenance technical system and not just its components.
management here. The maintenance plan must be in The functional scheme of flows of data and information in the
accordance with plan to produce, and horizon of planning in process of maintenance management is presented in Figure
most of the system is one to two years. 1.
The maintenance plan contains maintenance actions, and the
plan spare parts, plan personnel and other resources, while
elaborating preventive maintenance activities as a special
program of preventive maintenance.
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MAINTENANCE
MANAGEMENT
Management information systems for maintenance are
crucial "tool" for maintenance management. Maintenance is
one of the most important functions of the total logistic
support (integrated logistics) industry organizations.
Information technology (IT) could be an important tool for
reaching efficiency and effectiveness within maintenance,
provided that correct and relevant IT is applied. Figure 1. The process of maintenance management
In this paper, a conceptual model for identifying maintenance using information system for maintenance
management IT requirements is developed, with its practical The function of goal (function criteria) is determined by the
application in a process for the IT requirements identification requirements of the owner (user) of a technical system. It can
for maintenance management. The process is exemplified in be defined maximum the reliability (eg. In the case of
two real-world cases [3]. aviation) or maximum economic efficiency, minimal cost
The paper [3] suggests that the factors of goals, purpose and maintenance and maximum productivity (eg. In the case of
use should be considered on organizational and individual machine tools), and the like.
level in order to identify the IT demands. Correct level of IT Data refer to failures, malfunction, parameters of the state of
applied, i.e. IT consisting of correct functionality required for system and the reliability is established inspections and
planning, conducting and following up maintenance measurements, the maintenance operations maintenance
activities according to the state of maintenance and the costs, etc.
strategy adapted, will contribute to successful maintenance Holders of the original data are different documents on the
management. Moreover, paper [3] promotes the use of a forms created for information system on plain paper (but can
structured procedure for the identification of IT requirements be and magnetic media) such as map failures, reports of
for maintenance management. inspections and the like.
Information is an essential resource for setting and meeting For entering data from source documents (which are coded)
management objectives. The role it plays within the is used a mask (the software is created corresponding mask
organization is of vital importance as it helps to build for each group of data).
knowledge and measure the overall performance of the Information system in a logical sense reflects real (technical)
organization. As a result, information systems (IS) are no system and presents a model of operation and maintenance
longer used to supply support to the operation of a business, of technical systems.
or in the case of maintenance, to collect and analyze data. The Information system architecture consists of the following
IS must contain modules that can provide management with segments:

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— The data model that contains information about the The role of components for connecting with important
states of the technical system because they are the sources of information in the environment that are mostly
basis of the information system. relevant for tactical and strategic decision making (because
— Model the process describes the physical flows of the these sources of professional are journals and newspapers,
data, entering data into a computer as well as followed by industrial statistical surveys, database expert and
generating. scientific institutions, etc.).
— Model Support, which contains physical support For the maintenance management is a significantly staff
elements (equipment installation) then the education or for other purposes.
manpower, training of workers and the like. DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
For the analysis and design of information systems important Information system should be designed so as to be oriented
are three tools: to user and serves to man, to "thinks" like a man when he
— Vocabulary data wich contains tabular systematic solves a problem or when makes decisions in managing the
review (inventory) of all data by function (parts) ofprocess. These are increased requirements compared with
technical system is maintained. traditional information systems.
— Chart of flows data is established vocabulary of data They can be filled out by the information system is being
(document workflow). developed expanded roles. These roles can be [12]:
— The program for processing data including files or — The role of monitors,
databases. — The role of filter information,
The basic files are those which referee to the failure, orders for — The role of the components for interaction "on line"
maintenance operations, and reports of executed with the user and
maintenance operations. — The role of components for connecting with the
The content output information and the database are the environment.
most important features of the system in general. The content In order served as a monitor, information system should be
output information must be adapted to the type of decisions designed so that it continuously monitors key variables of the
that will be made and are expressed in the form of tables and maintenance process (eg. The number of machines in failure,
diagrams etc. the costs of corrective and preventive maintenance, etc.), but
Conventional information system "dramatically" reduces the some variables can serve as predictors in the planning and
amount of tedious routine work on the monitoring process predictions. So you can automatically undertake actions of
and decision-making. maintenance when the variation of some key variables
It enables to constantly comparing actual results with the become significantly.
expected and planned results, and to undertake a possible As a monitor of information system, further, can be used for
corrective actions. decision-making that are programmed. Using that
The life cycle of a project system with delivered outputs of information and certain decision rules automatically decision-
each stage is presented in Figure 2. making (eg. calculate) a specific decision that managers can
concentrate on non-programmed decision-making. The
largest number of technical and fewer tactical decisions are
routine, repetitive decisions that can be programmed.
Un-programmed decision making is presented in most of the
strategic problems and in the maintenance management of
them is not much, but it can be very significantly.
As a filter of information, information system reduces the
amount of information that is distributed to the middle
hierarchical level, and more reduced amount of information
that is distributed to top management, where this
information is synthesized. Thus, a vast quantity of
information is distributed rationally, with at the same time,
increasing functionality of the system.
The high costs in maintaining today’s complex and
sophisticated equipment make it necessary to enhance
Figure 2. The methodology development modern maintenance management systems. Conventional
of information system condition-based maintenance (CBM) reduces the uncertainty
The role of information system as component for interaction of maintenance according to the needs indicated by the
with user enables that he formulates your request and equipment condition. The intelligent predictive decision
immediately receives a response and it is a special important support system (IPDSS) for condition-based maintenance
for maintenance management. (CBM) supplements the conventional CBM approach by

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adding the capability of intelligent condition-based fault Automation, computerization and robotics work processes
diagnosis and the power of predicting the trend of require sophisticated methods of maintenance management
equipment deterioration. An IPDSS model, based on the and the increasing internationalization of markets requires
recurrent neural network (RNN) approach, was developed greater the reliability of production systems and competitive
and tested and run for the critical equipment of a power the ability. Without modern information system with
plant. The results showed that the IPDSS model provided expanded roles compared with traditional, and on these
reliable fault diagnosis and strong predictive power for the challenges can not be successfully respond. Even greater
trend of equipment deterioration [14]. opportunities lie in the application of decision support
Decision Support Systems (DSS) and expert systems (ES) are systems and expert systems.
even more powerful tools compared with the information In the paper is presented a methodological basis for the
systems, which in the management of the maintenance can approach designing specific information system for the
find wide application. DSS represent a symbiosis between maintenance management.
users (engineers and managers) and information systems in References
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