Applied / industry
Maintenance Engineering
5 self-contained study topics — notes, diagrams, formulas, and worked examples for exams and GATE.
Topics
- Preventive MaintenancePreventive maintenance (PM) services equipment on a planned schedule (time- or usage-based) to prevent failures before they occur, trading planned downtime for fewer breakdowns, per maintenance-engineering texts.
- Predictive MaintenancePredictive maintenance (condition-based) monitors machine condition — vibration, temperature, oil, current — to act only when data indicate impending failure. Vibration spectra reveal bearing defect frequencies (BPFO, BPFI), per maintenance-engineering texts.
- Reliability and AvailabilityReliability R(t) = e^(−λt) for a constant failure rate λ; MTBF = 1/λ. Availability = MTBF/(MTBF + MTTR) combines reliability and maintainability, per maintenance-engineering texts.
- Maintenance PlanningMaintenance planning schedules tasks, crews, and spares to minimise downtime and cost; crew size = total PM hours/available hours per technician. It coordinates work orders, priorities, and spare-parts inventory, per maintenance-engineering texts.
- Root Cause AnalysisRoot cause analysis (RCA) finds the underlying cause of failure, not just the symptom, using tools like the 5 Whys and fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram, so corrective action prevents recurrence, per maintenance-engineering texts.