A Design for Availability Process Framework with Field Data and Web-based Tools

This paper presents a Design for Availability approach for repairable health care Systems and Solutions; based on a framework which merges modeling approaches with managing and balancing of Reliability and Maintainability characteristics. The approach is used to prioritize the required Design for Reliability and Maintainability activities during the development phases of health care Systems and Solutions. It is supported by an 'easy' and 'intuitive' web-based toolset. The presented approach is applicable to product development and continuous improvement of fielded systems. It also serves as an enabler of digital twins for further Availability optimization. The Design for Availability approach starts with modeling of the System and Solution design in the Availability Design Tool, considering existing and new functionalities as well as different maintenance types. This is done in a hierarchal way to manage complexity. Historical data analysis as well as change point analysis are used to predict the Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Life Cycle Cost of the Systems and Solutions under development. Field data on both Reliability as well as Maintainability aspects are obtained via a data pipeline, thereby connecting the web-based Availability Design Tool with the data lake. For non-part related Maintenance activities, work order text analytics with Deep Learning algorithms is used to classify the activities and their impact. This is fed to the Availability model to improve the overall predictive capability of the model. With the Availability model and FMEA as inputs, a qualitative and quantitative analysis is executed to determine the Maintainability and Reliability of critical elements and parts in the proposed design. Easy execution of the FMEA is supported by a web based FMEA tool, allowing clear technical risk identification and prioritization. Based on the criticality analysis, work packages are defined. The work packages contain the Design for Reliability and Maintainability activities required, to ensure that the Systems and Solutions Availability and Life Cycle Cost objectives are met. Upon execution of the Design for Reliability and Maintainability activities, the initial model will require updates because of improved knowledge and understanding of probabilities of failure modes. This is also necessary due to the implemented design changes which mitigate the identified Reliability and Maintainability criticalities; either by preventing failures from occurring, implementation of fault tolerance or fault removal strategies. The approach allows for creating a hierarchical Availability model which includes Hardware as well as Software elements and feeding it with (near real-time) field data. This allows and prepares the model for use as digital twin for further optimization of the Availability of health care Systems and Solutions. The approach can be applied on an individual system as well as on multiple systems; enabled by an easy and free-to-use web-based toolset.