Maintenance strategies for mechanized and automated mining systems : a reliability and risk analysis based approach

The purpose of maintenance is to reduce the business risk. Therefore, it is very important that formal reliability and risk assessment form an integral part of the maintenance planning and control process. Taking decision concerning selection of maintenance strategy using risk-based criteria is essential to develop cost effective maintenance policies for mechanized and automated systems because in this approach technical features (such as reliability and maintainability characteristics) are analysed considering economic and safety consequences of each alternative at hand. This approach provides a holistic view of the various decision scenario concerning maintenance strategy where cost consequences of every possible solution can be assessed quantitatively. This paper emphasises the need of integration of risk analysis methods in all phases of conception, design, manufacturing and operation to arrive at the most optimal maintenance policies/strategies for the system under consideration. The paper also discusses various steps involved in risk analysis and concludes that the risk assessment can be used in many activities related to maintenance for arriving at the best decision among the several alternatives available at hand.