Benefit of operational data for planning and operation

The benefit for planning is a substantial improvement of knowledge on the failure behavior of components and systems, in the form of quantitative data as e.g. failure rates specified by the influencing parameters and informations about failure descriptions as e.g. failure modes, causes, consequences etc. This is shown by the example of a level measurement for which the influencing parameters and the failure rates are shown and discussed, furthermore the percentage distributions of failure modes, detection and for the failed items composing the components are presented. For the operation of the plant, the advantage lies with a systematic detection of off-normal failure frequencies, quality control and optimisation and improvements of maintenance and test strategy. This is demonstrated by the example dealing with an emergency diesel, the unavailabilities of which, caused by repair was substantially reduced by minor changes in construction and in the maintenance strategy. Another point is the influence of preventive maintenance on the failure behavior. Finally some aspects of the organisation of data collection and evaluation are discussed. (orig./HP)