Application for planning urban rail system vehicle preventive maintenance and improving maintenance efficiencies

When assessing urban transportation needs today, the rail systems sector stands out in many aspects. As a result, the rail systems sector is rapidly growing and developing both in our country and worldwide. With this growth, ensuring the safe and comfortable transportation of rail system vehicles to end-users requires significant attention to the maintenance and repair processes of these vehicles. Although rail system vehicles share common main components, the evolution of technology and project-based vehicle manufacturing have led to the specificity of these vehicles. Hence, maintenance and repair interventions for rail system vehicles can become complex beyond conventional methods. This study aims to meticulously examine the malfunctions and maintenance of rail system vehicles with the objective of eliminating non-value-added processes, standardizing maintenance/repair interventions, and maximizing the efficiency of maintenance/repair processes. As the initial phase of all endeavors, thoroughly comprehending the engineering techniques employed (such as Work Study, Benchmarking, 5S Technique, RAMS Management, TPM, Spaghetti Diagram, MTBF Values, etc.) and the specifics of the equipment/vehicles used in the operation is a fundamental necessity to conduct a healthy study. The functions, maintenance points, maintenance processes, and causes of malfunctions of the used equipment and vehicles were observed through both theoretical and practical scrutiny. Engineering techniques widely accepted, like Work Study for accurately revealing the time invested in maintenance, Benchmarking for evaluating maintenance items by comparison with other operations, and the Spaghetti Diagram for clear identification of redundant actions, were employed. This study attempts to showcase the potential of scientifically scrutinizing preventive maintenance processes in enhancing the overall efficiency, maintenance quality, and performance of operations. The numerical data obtained from our study evidently indicates that having a continuous improvement mindset can strengthen an operation's competitive advantage and contribute to achieving sustainable success. In the course of the study, preventive maintenance and the subcategory considered as heavy maintenance within the scope of preventive maintenance have been separately analyzed. A gain of 26% has been observed for preventive maintenance processes, while a 23% gain has been noticed for heavy maintenance processes.