A SIMPLIFIED METHOD OF FAST TRACKING FMECA USING SMART SOFTWARE TOOL: A CASE STUDY

Many approaches were modelled to achieve quality and reliability of manufactured goods and delivered services. Reliability Centred Maintenance RCM, Ishikawa Diagrams, Event Tree Analysis ETA, Fault Tree Analysis FTA, Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis FMECA were few examples of risk mitigation and reliability enhancements. In this study FMECA as an appropriate tool for reliability modelling is justified based on prescriptions of modified Mil-Std-1629A enhanced by the opportunities of the newer standards such as BS-5760-5, IEC-60812, and SAE AIR-4845-93. This analysis use the electrical distribution network of Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport Nigeria as a case study, where the system is sub-divided into three major subsystems as 33kv substation, main control and standby units. The FMECA is performed at indenture level 3 where basic components and parts such as circuit breakers, transformers, generators, armoured cables, switch gears etc are located and failure modes being identified and analysed. For faster and easier implementation, software called ELECTRACE was developed and used for implementation as a result of the high prices at which commercial FMECA software are obtained. The developed ELECTRACE was used to implement FMECA by drawing out clear worksheets and plotting criticality matrix where failure modes are easily spotted and identified based on criticality rankings derived from classes of severity and frequencies of occurrence. Large number of failure modes in the case study was found to have concentrated within acceptable positions of low criticality ranks, with few falling within unacceptable positions of high criticality ranks. However, mitigating the few high criticality ranking failure modes exposes the lower criticality ranking failures as disturbing partly because of their high concentration. The developed ELECTRACE was very useful and effective in this analysis and is flexible enough to be applied for FMECA implementation in any electrical, electronic or mechanical systems operating in other sections of the airport such as navigational aids, airspace management, airways handling, meteorology, service