Condition Monitoring Framework for Maintenance Management

Abstract

Historically, maintenance management activities have been regarded as a necessary evil by network utilities, especially in electricity distribution network utilities. However, in recent years, with the introduction of asset management, this attitude is increasingly being replaced by one which recognizes maintenance as a strategic issue. Preventive maintenance based on condition monitoring (condition based maintenance) is, amongst other methods, gaining more interest as condition monitoring systems are becoming financially more attractive. However, utilities still lack straightforward strategies or frameworks to know what information is required in guiding the selection of an appropriate condition monitoring regime. For that reason, a general framework is presented through which asset managers can select amongst different categories of condition monitoring methods for making asset management decisions such as replacement or maintenance. The focus in this paper is on online condition monitoring. The implication of this framework for practical purposes is supported in references [12] and [13].