Chapter 9

Maintainability

Maintainability Terms and Definitions, Importance, and Objectives

 Maintainability Management in System Life Cycle

 Phase I: Concept Development
 Phase II: Validation
 Phase III: Production
 Phase IV: Operation

Maintainability Design Characteristics and Specific Considerations

 Accessibility
 Modularization
 Interchangeability
 Standardization
 INTRODUCTION
• Maintainability is a design parameter intended to
reduce repair time, as opposed to maintenance,
which is the act of repairing or servicing an item or
equipment
MAINTAINABILITY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS,
IMPORTANCE AND OBJECTIVES
Some of the terms and definitions associated with
maintainability are as follows:
• Maintainability: The probability that a failed
item/equipment will be restored to acceptable
working condition.
• Maintainability Engineering: An application of scientific knowledge
and skills to develop equipment/item that is inherently able to be
maintained as measured by favorable maintenance characteristics
as well as figures of- merit.
• Maintainability Model: A quantified representation of a
test/process to perform an analysis of results that determine useful
relationships between a group of maintainability parameters.
• Downtime: The total time in which the item/equipment is not in a
satisfactory operable condition.
• Serviceability: The degree of ease/difficulty with which an
item/equipment can be restored to its satisfactory operable state.
• Maintainability Function: A plot of the probability of repair within
a time given on the y -axis, against maintenance time on the x -axis
and is useful to predict the probability that repair will be completed
in a specified time.
• There are many factors responsible for the importance of
maintainability. In particular, alarmingly high operating and support
costs, due to failures and subsequent maintenance, are among the
most pressing problems.
• These problems were even more apparent in the early days of the
maintainability field. For example, in the 1950s, the U.S. Air Force
performed a study and found that almost one-third of all Air Force
personnel were occupied with maintenance and the entire
maintenance activity accounted for approximately one-third of all Air
Force operating costs.
• The main objective of maintainability is to maximize equipment and
facility availability.
The other maintainability objectives include:
• Reduce predicted maintenance time and costs by simplifying
maintenance through design,
• Determine labor-hours and other resources needed to perform the
projected maintenance,
• Use maintainability data to determine item availability/ unavailability.
 MAINTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT
IN SYSTEM LIFE CYCLE
• An efficient and effective design can only be achieved by seriously
considering maintainability issues that arise during the system life cycle.
• This means a maintainability program must incorporate a dialogue
between the manufacturer and user throughout the system life cycle.
• This dialogue concerns the user’s maintenance needs and other
requirements for the system and the manufacturer’s response to these
needs and requirements.
The life cycle of a system can be divided into the following four phases:
• Phase I: Concept development
• Phase II: Validation
• Phase III: Production
• Phase IV: Operation
Specific maintainability functions concerning each of these phases are
discussed below.
 PHASE I: CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
In Phase I, high risk areas are identified and system operation needs are
translated into a set of operational requirements. The primary
maintainability concern during this phase is the determination of system
effectiveness needs and criteria, in addition to establishment of the
maintenance and logistic support policies and boundaries required to
satisfy mission objectives by using operational and mission profiles.

Items such as the following must be accomplished prior to developing

system maintainability requirements:
• Details of mission, system operating modes, and so on
• Evaluation of system utilization rates and mission time factors
• Details of the global logistic support objectives and concepts
• Evaluation of the system life cycle duration
 PHASE II: VALIDATION
• During Phase II, operational requirements developed and
formulated in the previous phase are refined further with
respect to system design requirements.
• The prime objective of validation is to ensure that full-
scale development does not begin until factors such as
costs, performance and support objectives, and schedules
have been effectively prepared and evaluated.
In this phase, maintainability management specifically deals
with tasks such as those listed below:
• Preparing maintainability program and demonstration
plans as per contractual requirements.
• Determining reliability, maintainability and system
effectiveness-related requirements.
• Preparing maintainability policies and procedures for validation and
follow-on full-scale engineering effort.
• Coordinating and monitoring the entire organization’s
maintainability effort.
• Performing maintainability predictions and allocations.
• Participating in trade-off analyses.
• Providing assistance to maintenance engineering in the
performance of maintenance-related analyses.
• Preparing plans for data collection and analysis.
• Establishing maintainability incentives and penalties.
• Participating in design reviews with respect to maintainability.
• Developing maintainability design-related guidelines for use by
design engineers with the aid of maintenance engineering analyses.
 PHASE III: PRODUCTION
• In Phase III, the system is manufactured,
tested, and delivered, and, in some cases,
installed per the technical data package
resulting from Phases I and II.
• Although the maintainability engineering
design efforts will largely be completed by
this time, the maintainability-related tasks
such as those listed below are performed
during this phase.
• Monitoring the entire production process.
• Examining production test trends with respect to
adverse effects on items such as maintainability,
maintenance concepts, and provisioning plans.
• Examining change proposals with respect to
their impact on maintainability.
• Assuring the proper correction of discrepancies
that can adversely impact maintainability.
• Taking part in establishment of controls for
process variations, errors, etc., that can
undermine system maintainability.
 PHASE IV: OPERATION
• In Phase IV, the system is used, logistically supported,
and modified as appropriate.
• During the operation phase maintenance, overhaul,
training, supply, and material readiness requirements
and characteristics of the system become clear.
• Although there are no particular maintainability
requirements at this time, the phase is probably the
most crucial because the actual cost-effectiveness
and logistic support of the system are demonstrated.
• In addition, maintainability-related data can be
obtained from the real life experience for future use.
 MAINTAINABILITY DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS
AND SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS
• There are many maintainability-related system/item characteristics that
must be emphasized during design.
• Some of these are: modular design, interchangeability, displays, human
factors, safety, test points, standardization, controls, illumination, weight,
lubrication, accessibility, installation, training needs, adjustments and
calibration, tools, labeling and coding, test equipment, manuals, work
environment, covers and doors, size and shape, failure indication
(location), connectors, and test hookups and adapters.
• The most commonly cited/mentioned maintainability-related
characteristics by professionals involved with maintainability include:
displays, controls, doors, covers, labeling and coding, accessibility, test
points, checklists, mounting and fasteners, handles, connectors, test
equipment, charts, aids, and manuals.
ACCESSIBILITY
• This may be described as the relative ease
with which an item can be reached for
replacement, service, or repair.
Inaccessibility is a frequent cause of
ineffective maintenance, thus an important
maintainability problem. Many factors can
affect accessibility.
Some of them are as follows:
• Location of item and its associated
environment.
• Frequency of entering access opening.
• Distance to be reached to access the part of
component.
• Type of maintenance tasks to be performed through
the access opening.
• Visual needs of personnel performing the tasks.
• Types of tools and accessories required to conduct
the specified tasks.
• Work clearances appropriate for carrying out the
specified tasks.
• Degree of danger involved in using access opening.
• Mounting or packaging of items/parts behind the
access opening.
• Required times for performing the specified tasks.
• Type of clothes worn by the involved personnel.
Some guidelines for the design of access openings are as
follows:
• Design access openings for maximum convenience in
performing the required maintenance tasks.
• Design access openings so they are a safe distance from
hazardous moving parts or high voltage points.
• Ensure that access openings occupy the same face as
associated features such as displays, controls, and test points.
• Ensure that the location of access openings allows direct
access to the parts or components that will subsequently
require some kind of maintenance.
• Ensure that access openings will be accessible effectively
under normal installation of the equipment or system.
• Ensure that the lower edge of a restricted access
opening is no less than 24 in. or its upper edge no
more than 60 in. from the work platform or floor.
• Ensure that heavy parts/units can easily be pulled
out rather than lifted out.
• Ensure that the location of accesses is compatible
with height of work stands and carts that will
often be used.
• Table 13.1 presents minimum access size
requirements, expressed in inches, for one-
handed tasks to be performed by a bare-handed
maintenance person wearing regular clothes.
 MODULARIZATION
• Modularization may be described as the division of a
product into functionally and physically distinct units
to permit removal and replacement. The degree of
modularization in a system or product depends on
factors such as cost, practicality, and function. Every
effort should be made to use modular construction
wherever it is logistically feasible and practical as it
helps reduce training costs, in addition to other
concrete benefits. Table 13.2 presents some guidelines
for designing modularized products.
 TABLE 13.2
Important Guidelines for Designing
Modularized Systems or Products Guideline
Description
• Divide the product / system / equipment under consideration into
many modular units.
• Make modules/parts/components as uniform in size and shape
as feasible.
• To the extent possible, design the modules for ease of
operational testing when removed from the system or equipment.
• Design all equipment so that an individual can easily replace any
failed part.
• Take an integrated approach to design by considering the
problems of component design, modularization, and materials
simultaneously.
• Aim to make each module capable of being
inspected independently and effectively.
• Design each modular unit small and light enough so
that a single individual can easily handle and carry it.
• Ensure that the functional design of the equipment is
matched with division of the equipment / product into
removable and replaceable items.
• Emphasize modularization for forward levels of
maintenance to enhance operational capability.
• Design control levers and linkages in such a way that
allows easy disconnection from parts or components,
in turn, simplifying component replacement process.
Some advantages of modularization are:
• Relative ease in maintaining a divisible configuration,
• Less time-consuming and costly maintenance staff training,
•Simplified new equipment design and shortened design time,
• Easy to divide up maintenance responsibilities,
• Lower skill levels and fewer tools required,
• Existing product or equipment can be modified with the
latest functional units replacing their older equivalents,
• Fully automated approaches can be employed to
manufacture standard “building blocks,” and easy
recognition, isolation,
• Replacement of faulty items leading to more efficient
maintenance, thus lower equipment downtime.
 INTERCHANGEABILITY
• Interchangeability may be defined as an intentional aspect of
design; any part / component / unit can be replaced within a
given item by any similar part / component / unit.
• There are two distinct types of interchangeability: physical
and functional. In physical interchangeability, two items can
be connected, used and mounted in the same location and in
the same manner. With functional interchangeability, two
given items serve the same function.
• The basic principles of interchangeability include: liberal
tolerances in the items requiring frequent replacement and
servicing of parts because of wear or damage, that each part
must be completely interchangeable with each other similar
part, and that the items expected to function without part
replacement strict interchangeability could be uneconomical.
The guidelines below are useful to achieving
maximum interchangeability of parts and units in a
given system:
• Ensure that when physical interchangeability is a
design characteristic, there is also functional
interchangeability.
• When functional interchangeability is not desirable,
there is no need for physical interchangeability.
• Avoid differences in size, shape, mounting, and
other such characteristics.
• All parts / units / components expected to be
identical should be completely interchangeable and
identified as interchangeable.
• Provide sufficient information in job instructions
and on plate identification for users to decide
with a certain level of confidence if two like
items are interchangeable.
• Provide adapters to make physical
interchangeability possible in situations
• where complete (i.e., both functional and
physical) interchangeability is not possible.
• Ensure that part/unit modifications do not
change the method of mounting and connecting.
 STANDARDIZATION
• Standardization may be described as the
attainment of maximum practical uniformity in an
item’s design.
• Although standardization should be a central goal
of design because use of nonstandard parts can
result in lower reliability and increased
maintenance.
• It must not be permitted to interfere with advances
in technology or improvements in design. Important
goals of standardization are presented in Fig. 13.1.
FIGURE 13.1 Main goals of standardization.
 The advantages of standardization include:

• Reduction in design time, manufacturing cost and

maintenance time and cost.
• Eliminates the need for special or close tolerance parts of
components.
• Useful to reduce errors in wiring and installation caused by
variations in characteristics of similar items or units.
• Useful to reduce the probability of accidents stemming from
incorrect or unclear procedures.
• Reduction in wrong use of parts or components.
• Useful to facilitate “cannibalizing” maintenance approaches.
• Improvement in reliability.
• Reduction in procurement, stocking and training problems.