Return to search

Maintainability prediction for aircraft mechanical components utilising aircraft feedback information

The aim of this research is to propose an alternative approach to determine the
maintainability prediction for aircraft components. In this research, the author looks at
certain areas of the maintainability prediction process where missteps or
misapplications most commonly occur. The first of these is during the early stage of
the Design for Maintainability (DfMt) process. The author discovered the importance
of utilising historical information or feedback information. The second area is during
the maintainability prediction where the maintenance of components is quantified;
here, the author proposes having the maximum target for each individual
maintainability component.
This research attempts to utilise aircraft maintenance historical data and
information (i.e. feedback information systems). Aircraft feedback information
contains various types of information that could be used for future improvement
rather than just the failure elements. Literature shows that feedback information such
as Service Difficulty Reporting System (SDRS) and Air Accidents Investigation Branch,
(AAIB) reports have helped to identify the critical and sensitive components that need
more attention for further improvement.
This research consists of two elements. The first is to identity and analyse
historical data. The second is to identify existing maintainability prediction
methodologies and propose an improved methodology. The 10 years’ data from
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) SDRS data of all aircraft were collected and
analysed in accordance with the proposed methodology before the processes of
maintainability allocation and prediction were carried out.
The maintainability was predicted to identify the potential task time for each
individual aircraft component. The predicted tasks time in this research has to be in
accordance with industrial real tasks time were possible. One of the identified
solutions is by using maintainability allocation methodology. The existing
maintainability allocation methodology was improved, tested, and validated by using
several case studies. The outcomes were found to be very successful.
Overall, this research has proposed a new methodology for maintainability
prediction by integrating two important elements: historical data information, and
maintainability allocation. The study shows that the aircraft maintenance related
feedback information systems analyses were very useful for deciding maintainabilityeffectiveness; these include planning, organising maintenance and design
improvement. There is no doubt that historical data information has the ability to
contribute an important role in design activities. The results also show that
maintainability is an importance measure that can be used as a guideline for managing
efforts made for the improvement of aircraft components.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:CRANFIELD1/oai:dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk:1826/7272
Date09 1900
CreatorsWan Husain, Wan Mohd Sufian Bin
ContributorsLockett, Helen, Fielding, John
PublisherCranfield University
Source SetsCRANFIELD1
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or dissertation, Doctoral, PhD
Rights© Cranfield University 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Page generated in 0.0015 seconds