*Maintenance Decision Method Based on Risk Level DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91913*


#### **Table 1.**

brought about in their maintenance work [1]. At present, based on the different attention focuses in each industry and the different model and method choices in the maintenance and management process, many research results are related to the maintenance decision method. Bertolini and Bevilacqua [2] proposed a new maintenance decision method to adopt a modified FEMCA analysis and a type of Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) approach based on different important levels of the power plant equipment. Bertolini and Bevilacqua presented a new maintenance decision technique to determine the better maintenance strategies for the critical centrifugal pumps in an oil refinery [3]. A maintenance decision method of a multi-criteria classification of equipment was proposed by Gómez de León Hijes and Cartagena by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and oil pipeline projects were effectively evaluated by Dey with a multiple attribute decision-making technique [4, 5]. Chang et al. applied a new maintenance decision model to estimate the production availability in offshore installations [6]. In the study above, some mathematical models, including AHP and MCS, are often used for making maintenance decisions. However, through research and investigation, very few applications of both AHP and MCS exist for making maintenance decisions of the mechanical equipment based on their different risk levels. Moreover, there are some differences between the mechanical equipment in the petrochemical industry and the ones in other industries, such as types and distribution of the failure, the methods and costs of the maintenance, and requirements for reliability and safety, due to the factors of harsh construction environments, complicated working conditions, and extremely high

Thus, these existing maintenance decision models and the maintenance strategies applied to the equipment in other industries are not directly suitable for the mechanical equipment in the petrochemical industry [8]. Therefore, it is necessary to study the maintenance decision method belonging to the mechanical equipment in the petrochemical production process by focusing on the features of its high risks and hazards [9]. A new framework is put forward for making maintenance decisions based on the different risk levels of the mechanical equipment. Finally, through the framework of maintenance decision making, a more reasonable and more effective maintenance strategy can be devised for the mechanical equipment

The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows. In Section 2, the influence factors of the risk level of the mechanical equipment are defined, and their scoring criteria are formulated. In Section 3, an evaluation model for the risk level of the mechanical equipment is established using AHP, and then, the MCS approach is applied to reduce the subjective influences in the scoring process. Then, three MDMETs for the mechanical equipment are obtained based on their categories of different risk levels in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 provides some discussion and

to guarantee the reliability and security of the production operation.

**2. Maintenance decision method based on risk level**

**2.1 Definition of evaluation indexes and scoring criteria of risk level**

Through the FMECA of the mechanical equipment in the petrochemical industry, from the four aspects of reliability, economics, monitorability, and maintainability, 10 influencing factors directly related to its risk level were analyzed, as

In order to ensure that the evaluation of the risk level of machinery and equipment is not too complicated, and that the accuracy of evaluation is balanced, and

safety requirements in the production process [7].

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conclusions.

shown in **Table 1** [10].

**332**

*Influencing factors of risk level about the mechanical equipment.*


#### **Table 2.** *Scoring criteria of PS.*

the degree of influence of each factor is more effectively quantified. Therefore, by experts, professional maintenance personnel and field operators through the review pointed out that the risk level of influencing factors according to the situation divided into 3–5 levels, using a 10-point system for scoring. The scoring standards for the 10 influencing factors related to the risk level of mechanical equipment are as follows [11].
