Edwards, D J and Yisa, S (2001) Modelling the magnitude of plant downtime: A tool for improving plant operations management. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 8(3), pp. 225-232. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
Utilization of off-highway vehicles forms an essential part of UK industry's efforts to augment the productivity of plant operations and reduce production costs. However, uninterrupted utilization of plant and equipment is requisite to reaping the maximum benefit of mechanization; one particular problem being plant breakdown duration and its impact upon process productivity. Predicting the duration of plant downtime would enable plant managers to develop suitable contingency plans to reduce the impact of downtime. This paper presents a stochastic mathematical modelling methodology (more specifically, probability density function of random numbers) which predicts the probable magnitude of the next breakdown, in terms of duration for tracked hydraulic excavators. A random sample of 33 machines was obtained from opencast mining contractors, containing 1070 observations of machine breakdown duration. Utilization of the random numbers technique will engender improved maintenance practice by providing a practical methodology for planning, scheduling and controlling future plant resource requirements. The paper concludes with direction for future research which aims to: extend the model's application to cover other industrial settings and plant items; to predict the time at which breakdown will occur (vis-à-vis the duration of breakdown); and apply the random numbers modelling to individual machine compartments.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | breakdown duration; linear interpolation; plant operations management; probability; stochastic random numbers; tracked hydraulic excavators |
| Index terms: | plant and equipment, modelling, duration, hydraulic, mining, mathematical modelling, productivity, density, operations management, methodology, production cost, scheduling, manager |
| Subjects: | operations research, fluid mechanics, analytical methods, practitioner, geotechnical engineering, project controls, research methods, manufacturing engineering, management |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Roles and Professions, Urban Studies, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here