The study of welding and U-press machine maintenance and repairing policies with Markov approach: A case study in APM

Abstract

This research aimed to clarify maintenance and repairing policies with Markov approach in the case study of Welding and U-press machines in Ahwaz pipe Mills. Documents and the reports of maintenance and accounting unit of the factory are the tools for collecting data. Sampling is the method of data collection in this study prepared by Welding and U-press machines produced in the production line No. 4 of the factory. The data used in this study were related to the year 2010 when the factory was working at full capacity.  The five research questions were used to describe the subject dimensions relating to the replacement policies: Fixed time, fixed course, group replacement, repairing or replacing. The production line No. 4 of Ahwaz pipe Mills factory is the statistical population of the study. Research approach is Markov chain utilized in pipe mills factory according to the description of maintenance and repairing policies. By using probability matrix of previous data, the future behavior was predicted and the production data was used in data mining to investigate further. The results of this study confirmed that choosing correct maintenance and repairing policies according to the study of system behavior and considering the information facilitate the repair costs and indicated a possible solution is not possible for all situations. And proper policy for the U-Press machines is to replace at the fixed time.