Maintenance plan improvement using failure mode effect and criticality analysis: A case study on mining equipment

The mining industry is known for its complex operations and challenging working conditions, which underline the importance of equipment reliability and operational effectiveness. This study introduces a novel maintenance planning framework that integrates Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) with optimal replacement time identification for critical mining equipment. Recognizing the challenges of balancing maintenance costs against the risks of equipment failure, the research employs FMECA to systematically identify and rank failure modes, thereby quantifying the degradation processes of key components. Through detailed risk assessments and failure data analysis, the proposed methodology determines precise replacement intervals that minimize unexpected downtime and maintenance expenses. A comprehensive case study on mining machinery demonstrates that aligning maintenance schedules with the optimal replacement times derived from FMECA not only enhances operational reliability and safety but also results in significant cost savings. This approach provides a replicable decision-support framework that can be applied to various industrial settings, ensuring that equipment replacements are both timely and economically justified. This research ensures that by employing FMECA and data analysis on critical mining equipment, the replacements times of components are carried out timely and at an optimized cost. Keywords: FMECA, Maintenance Plan, Preventive Maintenance Strategies, RCM, Minimizing Downtime and Reliability.