Maintenance Control System for Railway Asset Scheduling

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing maintenance systems for railway assets take a siloed approach, failing to consider the overall efficiency and downtime reduction by not simultaneously maintaining assets and their surrounding assets, leading to inefficiencies in maintenance scheduling and increased costs.

Innovation Solution

A maintenance control system that computes optimized maintenance work schedules by simulating different combinations of physical devices, considering operational requirements, and predicting failures to determine the most efficient and cost-effective maintenance plans, integrating sensors and IoT for real-time data collection and predictive maintenance.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If maintenance is performed on individual physical devices separately (siloed approach), then the maintenance process is simple to manage, but the overall maintenance efficiency is low and downtime is increased

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemaintenance efficiencyVSAvoidmaintenance scheduling complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines multiple individual maintenance tasks into integrated maintenance packages that simultaneously address multiple physical devices. The system groups maintenance activities for different assets into coordinated packages, allowing concurrent execution of previously separate tasks, thereby improving overall maintenance efficiency while managing complexity through systematic packaging.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The maintenance scheduling system dynamically adjusts maintenance packages based on real-time data from sensors and IoT devices. The system continuously monitors asset conditions and adapts maintenance schedules accordingly, optimizing the timing and composition of maintenance packages to balance efficiency gains with operational requirements.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

2Productivity

If more physical devices are maintained simultaneously, then overall maintenance efficiency improves, but the coordination and scheduling complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemaintenance outputVSAvoidmaintenance scheduling

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the overall maintenance portfolio into discrete, manageable packages that can be independently planned and executed. Each maintenance package contains a specific set of tasks for specific assets, allowing the system to handle complexity through structured segmentation while still achieving coordinated multi-device maintenance.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces an intermediary maintenance package structure that mediates between individual asset maintenance requirements and overall scheduling constraints. These packages act as intermediate units that bundle multiple maintenance tasks, simplifying the coordination process while enabling simultaneous maintenance of multiple devices.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Loss of time

If traditional separate maintenance scheduling is used, then each asset is maintained independently, but the total maintenance time and costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemaintenance downtimeVSAvoidmaintenance resources

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of timeVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple individual maintenance operations into consolidated packages that can be executed concurrently. By combining tasks for multiple assets into coordinated packages, the system reduces total maintenance downtime while optimizing the allocation and utilization of maintenance resources across the portfolio.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentUS10933895B2Control arrangements for maintenance of a collection of physical devices and methods for controlling maintenance of a collection of physical devices

Publication Date: 2021.03.02 HITACHI LTD

AI summary

According to various embodiments, there is provided a control arrangement for maintenance of a collection of physical devices, the control arrangement including: a receiver configured to receive observation data, the observation data representative of physical conditions of each physical device of the collection of physical devices; a processor configured to compute respective maintenance output data of maintaining different combinations of the physical devices, based on the observation data; and a controller configured to determine the combination of the physical devices to be maintained based on a comparison of the computed respective maintenance output data, the controller further configured to control maintenance of the determined combination of the physical devices.