Quantifying maintenance system efficiency of a lobe blower in a maize mill

Abstract

This study aims to assist maintenance managers in identifying the need for predictive maintenance on a specific machine. The endeavour is to provide justification for condition monitoring implementation and outline the need for technological progress. Generally, industries are reluctant to change existing systems, and it takes feasibility studies and convincing data for the capital expense. Maintenance strategies are not set in stone and can vary from one facility to another and from one machine to another in a specific facility. The current maintenance management system can be modelled using plant data from a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS). With a low-budget intermediate condition monitoring technique, existing data or data from the literature, predictive maintenance strategies can be compared using the MatLab model created in the study. The model is used in a case study on a maize mill blower from which relevant conclusions are taken regarding the feasibility of a predictive maintenance strategy for the specific machine. The model can show a direct comparison of cost and time between the existing maintenance system and that of a condition-based maintenance system.