Reliability assessment of an industrial system considering failures in its raw material inventory

Abstract

The perishable nature of food signifies that managing raw material inventory is a crucial aspect of the food industry. The present study focuses on the reliability assessment of a food industrial system, considering the synchronization of its raw material inventory and its food processing module. The raw material inventory encounters two distinct types of failures: one arises from the shortage of raw material, while the other stems from malfunctions in the inventory’s cooling system. An inspection is conducted to detect the type of failure in the raw material inventory. Two types of repairmen, namely operator and fitter, are employed to address the failures occurring in both the raw material inventory and the food processing module. The semi-Markov process and regenerative point technique are deployed for the dual purpose of evaluating the reliability indices and conducting availability sensitivity analysis so as to provide guidance to the manufacturers for enhancing the processing of production lines.