Reduction of life cycle costs for a contemporary helicopter through improvement of reliability and maintainability parameters

Abstract

Purpose

The modern helicopters are designed with maximum serviceability and long life expectancy to ensure minimum life cycle cost. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework to incorporate the customer requirements on reliability and maintainability (R&M) parameters into the design and development phase of a contemporary helicopter, and to discuss the way to capture operational data to establish and improve the R&M parameters to reduce life cycle cost.

Design/methodology/approach

From the analysis, it is established that the reliability and maintainability cost is the major contributor to the life cost. The significant reliability and maintainability parameters which influence R&M cost are identified from analysis. The operational and design data of a contemporary helicopter are collected, compiled and analyzed to establish and improve the reliability and maintainability parameters.

Findings

The process depicted in the paper is followed for a contemporary helicopter and substantial amount of life cycle cost reduction is observed with improvement of R&M parameters.

Practical implications

The benefits of this methodology not only reduce life cycle cost but also improve the availability/serviceability through less failure and less time for scheduled maintenance. The methodologies also provide the reliability trends indicating potential area for design improvement.

Originality/value

The proposed approach assists asset managers to reduce the life cycle costs through improvement of R&M parameters.

Citation

Ghosh, C., Maiti, J., Shafiee, M. and Kumaraswamy, K.G. (2018), "Reduction of life cycle costs for a contemporary helicopter through improvement of reliability and maintainability parameters", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 545-567. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-11-2016-0199