Markovian Study of Maintenance Practice in a Production Firm – A Case Study

Abstract

There are several reasons why maintenance managers need to ascertain, from time to time, the reliability profile of their production machines that are subject to constant use. This study furnishes the justifications by analyzing a 12-year maintenance data classified under machine time, downtime, idle time, running time, among others. Markov chain model as well as some reliability models – availability, mean time to failure, mean time between failures, hazard rate (λ) – were used to analyze the bulky data obtained from a soft drink bottling company based in Lagos, Nigeria. Our results suggest that the long run maintenance practice of the organization has caused between 87-94% of the machines/equipment to be in idle state while between 6-13% to be due for retirement. It is our candid opinion that if urgent action is not taken to whittle down the lingering trend the company will get to the brink of collapse.

Keywords: Transition matrix, Absorbing state, Catastrophic Failure, Matrix Utilization Factors

Nigerian Journal of Technological Research