17.0 Learning Outcomes

At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:

• Define reliability and maintenance in the context of operations management and explain their importance to organizational performance.
• Calculate system reliability using formulas for both series and parallel configurations, and interpret the implications of adding redundancy.
• Differentiate between key maintenance strategies: reactive, preventive, predictive, condition-based, reliability-centred, and risk-based maintenance.
• Assess the advantages and disadvantages of different maintenance strategies for a variety of assets.
• Analyze the cost implications (direct and opportunity) of various maintenance policies and their impact on operations.
• Apply historical breakdown data to estimate expected costs and advise on optimal maintenance strategies.
• Evaluate opportunity costs related to downtime and their effect on decision-making for maintenance investment.
• Solve practical problems involving maintenance scheduling and reliability calculations.