Risk assessment and prioritization using fuzzy FMECA: a case study of dumper breakdowns

The production and supply of coal are always prominent issues for thermal power plants due to the high demand for electricity generation. The dump trucks used in open-pit mining serve as a medium to transport the coal. Interrupted services of dump trucks due to breakdown can lead to delayed and incorrect supply to the generating units. To improve the productivity and for the proper delivery of the coal, the downtime should be minimized and the reliability should be maximized. FMECA is one of the prominent reliability modelling techniques that prevent occurrence of sudden failures. In order to overcome the shortcomings of traditional FMECA, fuzzy rule based approach is proposed in this paper to mitigate the failures in dumpers. Fuzzy FMECA helps in resolving the uncertainty and ambiguity in traditional FMECA approach and can work in a better way even using insufficient information when compared with traditional FMECA.