Modeling preventive maintenance of manufacturing processes with probabilistic Boolean networks with interventions

Recent developments in intelligent manufacturing have validated the use of probabilistic Boolean networks (PBN) to model failures in manufacturing processes and as part of a methodology for Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA). This paper expands the application of PBNs in manufacturing processes by proposing the use of interventions in PBNs to model an ultrasound welding process in a preventive maintenance (PM) schedule, guiding the process to avoid failure and extend its useful work life. This bio-inspired, stochastic methodology uses PBNs with interventions to model manufacturing processes under a PM schedule and guides the evolution of the network, providing a new mechanism for the study and prediction of the future behavior of the system at the design phase, assessing future performance, and identifying areas to improve design reliability and system resilience. A process engineer designing manufacturing processes may use this methodology to create new or improve existing manufacturing processes, assessing risk associated with them, and providing insight into the possible states, operating modes, and failure modes that can occur. The engineer can also guide the process and avoid states that can result in failure, and design an appropriate PM schedule. The proposed method is applied to an ultrasound welding process. A PBN with interventions model was simulated and verified using model checking in PRISM, generating data required to conduct inferential statistical tests to compare the effects of probability of failures between the PBN and PBN with Interventions models. The obtained results demonstrate the validity of the proposed methodology.