RAMS contribution to efficient waste minimisation and management

The significance of waste management systems in recent years increased due to the growing problems of waste management chains affecting the daily lives of millions of people and the impact on the environment. Several promising approaches have been developed in the past few years. One of them is the waste management system modelling using reliability, availability, maintainability and safety software. This paper analyses and evaluates this approach. The main goal is to provide quantitative forecasts for various performance measures of waste management systems. They include availability, downtimes, number of failures, and cost. Evaluation of these measures is important for optimal decision making. The system design should both maximise the system performance leading to cleaner processing and minimise the overall cost within the allowable constraints. The effectiveness of this methodology is demonstrated through a case study. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.