The course fits with the competence profiles of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering, giving to the students the opportunity to learn how to improve the design and the smooth introduction to the maintenance operations of capital assets according to theory and practice from different fields [Safety Engineering, Design for Maintenance, Reliability Engineering, Service logistics, Resilient Engineering, Antifragility Paradigm and Organizational Design]. Instead of designing systems to meet known requirements that will always lead to fragile systems at some degree, systems should be designed wherever possible to be antifragile: designing systems that can learn from their experience, adapt to unforeseen events they face in their environment, and grow stronger in the face of adversity.
Furthermore, the course gives an inside view of the complex working of modern industrial organizations.
The presented cases study and material make the course practical-oriented and close related to industry.
In the course of “Design for Maintenance Operations” we show the importance of the planning phase of the capital asset, for improving the reliability and safety of the capital asset.
Design for Maintenance is a discipline that has become increasingly important in recent years. In the capital-intensive industry, maintenance expenditures can raise in price several times compared to the initial investment. In order to stay competitive in their business, owners and users of these capital assets take into account the total life cycle cost at investment and the decisions renewal for their installations. Therefore, this interdisciplinary way of thinking in terms of life cycle performance gets special attention in the research and education programs that we provide at our department.
From another point of view, risk analysis, including safety aspects performed during the initial phase of the activity, leads to obvious advantages in terms of effectiveness of the outcome and cheapness of the intervention.
It is clear that the quality, in terms of compliance to the expected requirements and performance, has to be taken into account.
During the course, we refer to other specialized courses in which some of the analyses and problems are discussed more in detail (e.g., risk analysis, life cycle assessment). Therefore, this course can be considered as a preparation for a final assignment/thesis in Maintenance or Safety related fields.