Fuzzy Risk-Based Maintenance Strategy with Safety Considerations for the Mining Industry

Enterprises today are increasingly seeking maintenance management strategies to ensure that their machines run faultlessly. This problem is particularly relevant in the mining sector, due to the demanding working conditions of underground mines and machines and equipment-operating regimes. Therefore, in this article, the authors proposed a new approach to mining machinery maintenance management, based on the concept of risk-based maintenance (RBM) and taking into account safety issues. The proposed method includes five levels of analysis, of which the first level focuses on hazard analysis, while the next three are connected with a risk evaluation. The final level relates to determining the RBM recommendations. The recommendations are defined in relation to the three main improvement areas: maintenance, safety, and resource availability/allocation. The proposed approach is based on the use of fuzzy logic. To present the possibilities of implementing our method, a case study covering the operation of selected mining machinery in a selected Polish underground mine is presented. In the case of mining machinery, fourteen adverse-event scenarios were identified and investigated; general recommendations were also given. The authors have also indicated further directions of research work to optimize system maintenance strategies, based on the concept of risk-based maintenance. Additionally, the discussion about the implementation possibilities of the approach developed herein is provided.