MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENET ASSIGNMENT 3

PERFORMING A MECHANISM BASED FAILURE ANALYSIS

Strict rules:
• Due date by email to robbin.gajadin@outlook.com and hardcopy: August 2 - 2019

Other information:
• Start date: July 8 - 2018
• Expected time needed: 18 hours

Introduction
The systems to be analyzed is the same as in assignment 2, i.e. the HITACHI EX 135 excavator. The
objective hereof is to perform a MBFA in order to eliminate recurring system failures. The MBFA
procedure proposed in the booklet (Tinga, T., Mechanism based Failure analysis, 2013) must be followed
and all steps must be described and motivated. However, as the FMEA has already been performed for
this asset (in assignment 2), the effort in creating a fault tree (which can be very extensive if all possible
failures are included) will be limited. This means that an overview of all possible failure modes is already
available, and the fault tree can rather easily be derived, but should represent the appropriate relation
with the (to be) defined top event, and the relations between the different failures.
The priority in failures can be obtained in two ways:

 From the RPN values calculated during the FMEA in assignment 2 (maybe some RPN values must
be recalculated when they were not included in the FMEA),
 From a Pareto analysis on (estimated) costs, downtime and observed failure frequency;

Use both these methods to prioritize on which failures to further analyze. A clear motivation must be
provided for the prioritization criteria you think is most suitable in this case.

The focus in this assignment will be on the final part, the root cause analysis, which should be performed
for at least four different failures. Pay sufficient attention to determining the right failure mechanism and
clearly motivate and describe how you determined it. Additionally, clearly describe how the failure and
associated load is related to the usage of the excavator.

Thus, this assignment must be written in a report form and include the following:

A. A short chapter briefly describing the MBFA process and steps in general
B. The MBFA as performed for the HITACHI EX 135, which includes:
a. The list of assumptions you have made for the application of this specific MBFA;
b. All the steps of the MBFA as applied to the excavator
c. A figure, displaying the failure mode, failure mechanism, internal load and external load
of the chosen highest priority failure modes
Tips

 If you need more information or details which are not provided, make assumptions and
communicate them in the report.

Notes

• Refer to some relevant academic literature, next to the literature that I have supplied you, in a
meaningful and correct way.
• Although I will focus mainly on the content, do think about the lay out and structure of your
report, and ensure that you do not make spelling and grammar errors.