Section A – Basic Concept Questions (Description)
Section A contains short conceptual questions related to the fundamentals of maintenance engineering and reliability management. Students are required to provide brief definitions and explanations of key maintenance terms used in industrial systems.
The questions in this section cover topics such as preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, redundancy, availability, maintainability, and mean time to failure (MTTF). These concepts are essential for understanding how equipment reliability and system performance can be improved through effective maintenance strategies.
Students must also understand different types of wear mechanisms, lubrication methods, and reliability concepts used in maintenance engineering. Concepts like hazard models help engineers predict failure rates and analyze the reliability of mechanical systems.
The main goal of this section is to test the student’s understanding of basic terminology and principles used in maintenance management and reliability engineering.
Questions for Section A
Define maintenance in engineering systems.
What is preventive maintenance?
What is corrective maintenance?
What is redundancy in reliability engineering?
Differentiate between adhesive wear and abrasive wear.
What is splash circulating lubrication?
What is availability in maintenance engineering?
Define maintainability.
What is Mean Time to Failure (MTTF)?
Write a short note on the hazard model.
Section B – Descriptive Questions (Description)
Section B includes descriptive and analytical questions that require detailed explanations of maintenance strategies, reliability analysis, and management techniques.
One important topic in this section is breakdown maintenance, where students must explain the features and management aspects of maintenance performed after equipment failure.
Another important concept is Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), which focuses on improving productivity and reducing downtime by involving all employees in maintenance activities.
Students are also required to solve numerical problems related to replacement policies, where maintenance costs increase over time and decisions must be made about when equipment should be replaced.
The section also covers topics such as maintenance cost analysis, product life cycle analysis, reliability calculations, and network planning techniques like PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique).
These questions test the student’s ability to analyze maintenance systems and apply engineering management principles.
Questions for Section B
Explain breakdown maintenance and its management features.
What is Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)? Explain its main features.
Determine the best replacement age for trucks based on maintenance cost analysis.
Explain how cost analysis of a maintenance department is carried out.
Explain the operating life cycle using examples such as radio or transistor.
How does maintenance management differ from production management?
Determine the reliability of each component in a parallel system to achieve a given system reliability.
Explain PERT and its importance in network analysis.
Section C – Long Analytical Questions (Description)
Section C contains long analytical and decision-making questions related to replacement policies, maintenance planning, and inventory management.
One important problem in this section involves determining the most economical replacement strategy for light bulbs using group replacement and individual replacement methods. Students must analyze failure probabilities and replacement costs to determine the most cost-effective maintenance policy.
Another topic included in this section is computerized inventory management systems, where students must explain the types of data files used in such systems and the reports generated to support maintenance operations.
The section also includes questions about replacement theory, which helps engineers decide when equipment should be replaced to minimize operating and maintenance costs. Replacement decisions may be based on increasing maintenance costs or sudden equipment failures.
These questions require analytical thinking and application of maintenance management principles.
Questions for Section C
Determine the most economical group replacement interval for light bulbs based on failure probability and replacement cost.
What are the typical data files used in a computerized inventory system? What reports are generated?
Explain the theory of replacement for:
Items whose maintenance cost increases with time
Items that fail completely and require replacement.
