Question $2$: Design for maintenance

As the new Maintenance Manager at Brabs Plant, you face the challenge of a failing plant. The plant relies on four pumps operating in parallel to

manage critical processes. Out of these, three pumps are always operational, and one pump is kept on standby, under the assumption that only

one pump will fail at any given time and undergoes emergency maintenance. Over the past six years, the pumps have experienced an average

of $40$ failures per year collectively. It takes approximately $2$ hours to prepare for maintenance and $3$ hours to repair each pump. Additionally,

pump maintenance is scheduled on bi$-$monthly basis.

Your objective is to improve the maintenance strategy to ensure that the pumps remain operational and efficient over the next $20$ years. An

important aspect of this strategy is integrating design for maintainability principles to enhance long$-$term reliability and availability of the pumps.

The initial cost of these $4$ pumps is R $480,000\mathrm{.}00.$