Optimizing Condition Based Maintenance Decisions
Andrew K.S. Jardine University of Toronto Toronto
Key Words: Condition based maintenance, Condition Monitoring, Proportional hazards modeling,
Vibration monitoring, Oil analysis, EXAKT software, Expert systems, Neural networks.
SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS
The paper first reviews common strategies for implementing
smart condition monitoring decisions such as trend analysis
that is rooted in statistical process control, expert systems, and
the use of neural networks.
The paper then focuses on current industry-driven research
that employs proportional hazards modeling to identify the
key risk factors that should be used to identify the health of
equipment from amongst those signals that are obtained
during condition monitoring. Economic considerations are
then blended with the risk estimate to establish optimal
condition-based maintenance (CBM) decisions.
Recent results of the research program included in the paper
include development of the EXAKT software, and its
successful application to the condition monitoring techniques
of vibration monitoring (with Campbells Soup), oil analysis
(with Cardinal River Coal) and visual inspection (with Hong
Kong Mass Transit).
Finally, the paper reports the substantial economic benefits
associated with this new approach to the optimization of
condition-based maintenance decisions through three case
examples. The studies cite identification of the 3 key
vibration monitoring signals out of 18 to be used by
Campbells Soup to optimize their CBM decisions for shear
bearings, resulting in a documented cost reduction of 33%;
identification of the 2 key measurements out of 12 taken by
Cardinal River Coals wken they conduct oil analysis of their
wheel motors that results in an expected cost saving of 30%;
and finally the improvement in system reliability by Hong
Kong Mass Transit through using the optimization procedure
to establish an optimal frequency for inspecting the bearings
on their trains, resulting in the expected number of annual
system failures being reduced from 9 to 1 with an associated
economic benefit of a 50% cost reduction.
I. INTRODUCTION
With the plethora of techniques available to monitor the
health of equipment there is always the question about how
best to smartly interpret signals emanating from a condition-
monitoring tool. Following is a summary of key approaches
used to interpret signals emanating from condition-monitoring
tools. Unquestionably the most frequently occurring approach
is through trending of measurements, setting limits on these
measurements, then basing the maintenance decision on
comparing a specified measurement with its limit.
0-7803-7348-0/02/$10.00 61 2002 IEEE
90 2002 PROCEEDINGS Annual R E L I A B l L l n and MAINTAINABILITY Synrposnnn
Classical Smart Condition Monitoring Strategies
Expert Systems 1.2.3)
Some Advantages
Expert systems are automated built-in test systems which
make use of IF-THEN rules to make a decision (based on
inputs)- since they are automated, they can replace a human
experts decision-making responsibility
Expert systems are able to continuously monitor the
condition of a system and make expert decisions, whereas
human experts may not be available to continuously
monitor a system
s Expert systems are able to give explanations as to how they
arrived at a particular solutionidecision via an audit trail
that includes rules the system selected and why these rules
were selected
Requires less programming (or training time) than
Neural Networks
In addition to employing hard-and-fast IF-THEN rules,
Expert systems can be built using Fuzzy Logic
(uncertainiunclear IF-THEN rules)
Some Disadvantages
Since Expert systems are modeled after actual human
experts, there may be inherent flaws in the knowledge base
of the expert system if the experts logic is flawed-
however, this can easily be fixed by selecting many
competent experts to verify the rules and the logic of the
system
0 Since it is relatively simple to make changes to the
knowledge base, it is easy to introduce errors into an expert
system- again, this can be remedied with extra diligence in
building the Expert system
In order for an Expert system to be built, the situation must
already have been dealt with and encountered by human
experts
There is a certain skill involved in building an effective
Expert system- it is important to learn how to question
domain experts in order to get better answers for CM
situations
Expert systems normally do not incorporate economic
analysis in their decisions (Le. is it more profitable to
preventively replace or to run until failure?)
Trending (SPC) (Rrf4S
Some Advantages
Trending is a statistical analysis technique that is used to
measure if actual signals are within reasonable control
limits (i.e. if the signal is close to the estimated signal)-
since it uses only statistical analysis, no knowledge of how
the system operates is necessaly
Trending can be (and most often is) used as input to both
Expert systems or Neural Networks in actual CM software-
incorporating trend data, especially in the case of Neural
Networks, cuts down on training sets since the trend now
replaces a multitude of variables
Some Disadvantages
Trending is essentially a process monitoring tool rather
than a control tool- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
requires that successive observations behave like
independent identically distributed random variables, and
thus it cannot be considered valid for processes where data
correlation is significant
Trending, or SPC applies warning and control limits which
are relatively static. That is, the control limits do not
account for aging of equipment where the risk of failure
in an upcoming interval is partially dependent on its
working age
Trending normally does not incorporate economic analysis
in CM
Neural Networks (Ref.S,6.7)
Some Advantages
Neural Networks are processors that have the ability to
acquire knowledge through a leaming process (Le. data-
mining) and then store this knowledge by connectors (each
connector, or synaptic link, has a weight associated with
it)- therefore, NN are useful in CM because they can learn
the systems normal operating conditions and determine if
incoming signals are significantly different (if used in
conjunction with SPC)
NN useful when there is lots of training data available
NN useful when the CM process has some notable
imprecision- they are adaptable and dynamic
NN are useful when hard-and-fast rules (such as those used
in Expert systems) cannot easily be applied- in fact, this is
specifically the case with Fuzzy Neural Networks
Some Disadvantages
There are no methods for training NNs that can magically
create information that is not contained in the training data
0 Training data must be representative of ALL the machine
conditions in order for NN to successfully be used in smart
CM
Significantly longer training times than those for Expert
systems
A NN decision engine has the ability to adapt with
incoming signal inputs- thus, if the incoming signals are
drifting, the NN may adapt and view this drift as normal,
when in fact, this drift is a sign of an out-of-control
process- referred to as over-fitting
2002 PROCEEDINGS ilnnuol RELIABILITY and MAINTAINABILITY Sjmpusiium
NN suffer kom spillover- when a drift is introduced into
one variable, it impacts the estimate of a different variable-
this can make it seem as if many signals are drifting,
whereas only one signal is actually drifting
NN normally do not incorporate economic analysis in their
condition monitoring decisions (Le. is it more profitable to
preventively replace or to run until failure?)
Statistical Modeling (Ref.3,8,9)
Some Advantages
Statistical Modeling (such as Proportional Hazards
Modeling or Principle Component Analysis) uses a lower
(sometimes much lower) number of training sets than NN
(i.e. historical events data and inspections data)
There is a knowable degree of confidence in applying
statistical models (Le. confidence interval)- this is not the
case with Expert systems
Since the working age of the equipment is considered in
Statistical Modeling, risk estimation (Le. predicting
impending failure) may be more effective
Some Disadvantages
Statistical Modeling is a static condition monitoring
strategy- it only takes data at specified times and not on a
continual basis
Statistical modeling normally doesnt incorporate
economic analysis
EXAKT Condition Monitoring Strategy
Some Advantages
EXAKT blends together risk estimation via Statistical
Modeling and Economic considerations- therefore, it
becomes possible to determine if it is more profitable to
preventively replace a piece of equipment or to run until
failure
It is an efficient tool for identifying key risk factors used
for condition monitoring- thus, it pinpoints the most critical
risk factors out of a group of several risk factors
Some Disadvantages
Good records are required in order to effectively use
EXAKT (i.e. when items came into service, when they
were removed, and when any minor maintenance activities
occurred)- sometimes it is difficult to get these records
The work reported in this paper originated in the
measurement of oil deposits in the Pran and Whimey engines
on the Boeing 707 of the Canadian Department of National
Defence [Ref. IO], where rates of change of certain engine oil
deposits were compared to standards. If the rate exceeded its
limit, the engine was removed from service prior to its design
life and retumed to Pratt and Whitney for major overhaul. In
that initial study it was noted that from time-to-time engines
that had been removed were in fact in good health, and could
have remained safely on the aircraft for a further period, This
led to an interest in obtaining a good estimate of what the risk
was of an engine transitioning to a failed state between two
91
scheduled inspections. If this risk was high then the engine Companies currently members of the CBM Consortium are
should be removed, if low it should be left on the aircraft to identified above by an asterisk.
the next scheduled inspection. A paper had been published by
Cox [Ref. 81 where he drew attention to a procedure known as
proportional hazards modelling, and made the comment in that 2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE EXAKT SOFTWARE
paper that the applications are more likely to be in industrial
reliability studies.... The paper by Anderson et al [Ref.lO] There are two keys to the EXAKT software used for
we believe was the first to use proportional hazards modeling optimizing CBM decisions. They are:
for risk estimation of equipment subject to condition
monitoring. I. risk
The next step was to consider the change-out time for 2. economics
components based not just on risk levels, but also taking into
account economic considerations. The blending together of Risk is estimated using Coxs proportional hazards model with
risk and economics was tirst reported in the conference paper a Weibull baseline failure rate:
[Ref. I I], and then in the journal paper [Ref. 121.
Subsequent to the journal paper being published a major
research project commenced at the University of Toronto to
take the theoretical results published in [Ref. 121 and develop
a software tool, now known as EXAKT that could be used by
organizations wishing to optimize their condition based
with p and q being the shape and scale parameters of the
maintenance procedures. Many of these organizations were
Weibull distribution and f denotes time (working age) of the
observing the same result of condition monitoring as was
item at inspection.
found in the initial study of Pratt and Whitney engines, namely
Economic considerations are those associated with the total
there were often premature component removals due to
cost of replacing the item being subject to condition
misinterpretation of the signals emanating from condition
monitoring either preventively Cp or due to failure, Cf.
monitoring. In a recent paper Christer [Ref. I31 made the point
A paper describing in detail the sofiware development and
Since introducing CM of gearboxes, failures had fallen by
underlying mathematical and statistical modeling is that of
90%. This is a notable accolade for CM. ...It transpired that
Banjevic at al [Ref. 151.
when reconditioning defective gearboxes, in 50% of
occasions there was no evident gearbox fault. Seemingly, CM
The key outcome of the analysis undertaken in EXAKT is to
can be at the same time very effective, and rather inefficient.
evaluate the various measurements that are used to monitor the
Funding to develop software and continue research into the
health of equipment, and through goodness-of-tit checking
optimization of condition-based maintenance decisions,
establish the key risk factors that should be used to health
resulted in the creation of the Condition-Based Maintenance
monitoring, then by taking into account the economic
Laboratory at the University of Toronto in December 1995.
consequences associated with both preventive and failure
Initial financial support for a 3 -year period was provided by
replacement produce a decision chart that can be used by
the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
inspectors to identify the optimal decision to take at the time
Canada, Material and Manufacturing Ontario and the
of inspection. The chart is illustrated on Figure I . This chart
following six companies:
related to measurements taken in an oil well where there were
severe corrosion problems. On the x-axis it is seen that the
Alcoa
only condition monitoring measurement that was used was the
Barrick Gold
ppm of Fe in the oil sample, and the weighting to give it is
Dofasco Steel
0.0437.
Molson Breweries
Syncrude Canada*
Wear Check Canada

As time progressed new companies joined for future 3-year

projects, while others terminated their support.
The complete listing of companies who have supported the
development ofthe software, now known as EXAKT [Ref. 141
in addition to those identified above are:

Campbells Soup*
Canadian Department of National Defence
Mass Transit Railway Corporation of Hong Kong
Pricewaterhousecoopers , Management Consulting Services:
Hydro One
Electricite de France*
Figure I: EXAKT Graph of Optimal Replacement Policy

92 2002 PROCEEDINGS Annual FELIfWILITYand MAINTAINABILITY Symposium


3. OPTIMIZING CONDITION BASED MAINTENANCE
DECISIONS
As mentioned in the previous section there are two keys to
optimizing CBM decisions: risk and economics.
Organizations using condition monitoring always have large
quantities of inspection records. Usually these records are
quite complete, but there are situation where there are missing
values. To improve the risk estimate requires that these
missing values are replaced by appropriate estimates. The first
decision that has to be made before commencing the analysis
is to establish what type of data quality situation is in place
(Figure 2), and then undertaking the appropriate risk
estimation analysis.
Figure 2: EXAKT Procedures Window
Figure 3 shows a typical screen capture of data coming from
the transmission records associated with oil analysis of
transmissions on a haul truck in a mining operation. It can be
seen from that Figure that certain measurements are not
provided in the inspection records.
Figure 3: Inspection Data
The goal of interpreting the CM data is to make the best
possible maintenance decision by, for example, getting a
handle on the true state of health of the equipment, calculating
the risk of impending failure, and estimating the remaining
2002 PROCEEDINGS Annunl RELIABILITY and MAINTAIlYABILITY Syiiiposiuni
useful life. Quality .estimates of necessary values cannot be
obtained solely from condition monitoring data, but
additionally require "event data", such as when equipment was
installed, when maintenance actions took place, when
equipment was replaced, and so on. From our experience, this
"event data" is frequently incomplete: missing or perhaps
embedded in work orders that may not be easy to access.
Figure 4 illustrates the associated event data for the
transmissions. That is information about when a transmission
was installed, when it was replaced, reason for replacement,
and any other maintenance actions that have taken place
during the life of the transmission - such as oil changes.
Figure 4: Events Data
Once all the records are obtained a proportional hazards
analysis is undertaken to establish what the statistically
significant measurements are. This is achieved through
classical goodness-of-fit testing. The penultimate step for the
transmission analysis is shown on Figure 5. There is it seen
that for the parameter "Calcium" there is an "N" in the third
column. This indicates that calcium is not a statistically
significant variable and can be dropped from the analysis.
. - . .. - . .. ... . .. .
Figure 5: Summary of PHM Parameters- Including
Calcium
93
The data is then re-analysed and the final result is obtained,
see Figure 6.
Figure 6: Summary of PHM Parameters- Without
Calcium
The result for the risk model is therefore:
- I
r ( f , z ( r ) )=
exp(0.2626* Fe+I.O52*Pb)
Blending together the risk model and economic
considerations is then achieved by first establishing the
economic consequence associated with replacing the item, in
this case a transmission, on a preventive basis and the cost
associated with replacing it subsequent to unexpected failure.
For the transmission example the cost consequence associated
with a failure replacement compared to a preventive
replacement was 4.5 greater. Using this enables Figure 7 to be
obtained.
Worklng Age-3623 p]
Z=Q.-?rm +?.%mad
Figure 7: EXAKT Replacement Recommendation
Once the Replacement Decision Chart is obtained the CM
inspector then plots on the chart then result of the inspection
94 2002 PROCEEDlNGS, ftrinuol RELIABILITY aod MAINTAINABILITY SympOSIUnl
measurements. If the result is in the lower region the
conclusion is to continue operating the equipment to the next
scheduled inspection. If it is in the darker region then the
appropriate maintenance action is preventive replacement. If
the result lies bcttrccn these t u o regions then the hrst action is
to plan to rcplnce the item bdorz r ~ w h i n gthe n w schedulcd
inspectim, the appropriate tinic is pro\ ideJ.
4. CASE STUDIES
The optimization of CBM decisions through collaboration
with companies has been a concentrated effort by a team of
researchers at the University of Toronto since December 1995.
While some studies that have been undertaken with companies
that are members of the CBM Consortium are confidential it is
possible to describe one that have been undertaken with
Campbell Soup and relates to the use of vibration monitoring
as the tool for condition monitoring, and the other with Mass
Transit Railway Corporation of Hong Kong where the
condition monitoring tool was visual inspection. Another
study undertaken with Cardinal River Coals where the form of
monitoring was oil analysis is also outlined below.
4. I . Campbell Soup Company.
Campbells Canadian operation is in Toronto, Ontario. It
was there that a study was carried out that compared their
current replacement policy on shear pump bearings with
other replacement policies, including one that used
EXAKTTM.
The results show clearly that replacements that are made
according to the output from EXAKTThcan save substantial
amounts of money compared to other approaches.
Altogether 25 histories were used in the study - a
history means maintenance and condition monitoring
records for a unit. The condition of the bearings was
monitored by vibration readings provided by an
accelerometer, and the readings provided 21 vibration
covariates. Besides this data, age-based data was also
compiled that included information on maintenance actions
(events), replacements and failures over time.
First of all, it was found that only 3 of the 21 covariates
being measured were significant. That is, the analysis was
not improved by using 18 ofthem. This alone means that the
collection, storage, compilation and analysis of much of the
data could be eliminated with obvious gains in the productive
use of time.
But the real pay-off from using EXAKTTM is illustrated by
the calculation that the average replacement cost under
Campbells current system of $59.46/day could be reduced to
only $26.83/day using the optimum policy calculated by the
software. Thats an impressive 55% saving.
Further, Campbells current average time to replace the
bearings was 157 days compared with the EXAKTTM
recommendation of 173 days, a lifetime increase of 10.2%.
That means a lower annual cost of bearings, and fewer
maintenance intrusions on the machinery.
Additional details can be found in the paper [Ref. 161. A
very detailed application ofthe modeling approach discussed
in this paper to equipment subject to condition monitoring by
vibration analysis is provided in [Ref. 171
4.2. Cardinal River Coals
The paper [Ref. 171 discusses work completed at Cardinal
River Coals in Canada to improve the existing oil analysis
condition-monitoring program being undertaken for wheel
motors.
Oil analysis results from a fleet of 55 haul truck wheel
motors were analyzed along with their respective failures and
repairs over a nine-year period. Using the proportional-
hazards model (PHM) approach, the key condition variables
relating to failures were found from among the 19 elements
monitored, plus sediment and viscosity. Those key variables -
only two, iron and sediment- were then incorporated into a
decision model that provided an unambiguous and optimal
recommendation on whether to continue operating a wheel
motor or to remove it for overhaul on the basis of data
obtained from an oil sample.
Wheel motor failure implied extensive planetary gear or sun
gear damage necessitating the replacement of one or more
major internal components in a general overhaul. The decision
model, when triggered by incoming data, provided both a
recommendation based on an optimal decision policy as well
as provide an estimate of the unit's remaining useful life
(RUL). By optimizing the times of repair as a function both of
age and condition data a 20-30% potential savings in overhaul
costs over existing practice was identified.
4.3. The MTR Corporation
Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway keeps 2.4 million
people on the move every weekday, making it one of the most
heavily utilized mass transit systems in the world.
Committed to continuous improvement, the MTR
Corporation has embarked upon an $8 billion 5-year capital
works program to bring about improvements in the areas of
customer service, and environmental and station system
management. These will result in better services for
passengers.
The same dedication to excellence is reflected in their
approach to maintenance. The MTR Corporation recently put
EXAKTTM to work on ball bearing failures in its traction
motors. In-service failures were averaging 9/year, and each
failure resulted in - (or had the potential to result in) -
stoppage of an entire subway line with severe consequences
for its passengers.
In this case, the condition of the bearings was monitored by
tracking changes to the color of the lubricating grease - the
darker the color, the more definite was the signal that
deterioration was occurring. For consistency, a "color card"
was developed that was used to compare various color tones
with the grease, and to establish which "Code Number" to
assign - colors were graded Code I to Code 4.
EXAKTT" used the color codes as its input for the parts'
condition, and additional data was used for failure and
maintenance-event histories. The output indicated that
inspections intervals should be shortened from 3% years to
annually, and by doing so the failures could be reduced to only
Ifyear compared with the previous 91'year. Taking into
account the "total costs" associated with the maintenance and
replacement of the bearings - increased time on inspections,
more that offset by fewer failures - the reduction in costs will
amount to 55% of the pre-EXAKTTM costs.
It should be noted that while it may be thought that to build
a proportional hazards risk model for equipment subject to
2002 PROCEEDINGS .4,7nunl RELIABILITY and MAlNTAINABILlTY .Ajmfpo.~iufn
condition monitoring is "impossible" since there will be very
few, if any, failures observed. This is not the case.
The purpose of condition monitoring (CM) certainly is to
mitigate the consequence of failures. However, in the context
of optimization one is always examining trade-offs. So, while
the outcome o f C M may result in a substantial reduction in the
number of failures that may have been experienced prior to the
implementation of CM, a question that could be asked is: Is
this reduction economically justifiable?
Our experience is that CM does substantially improve plant
reliability, but we also note that there are often significant
premature removals due to misinterpretation o f the signals that
emanate from various forms of CM. In the wheel motor study
referred to above there were many CM records associated with
the 138 wheel motors associated with a fleet of haul trucks in
an open pit mine. Oil analysis was used to monitor the health
of the wheel motors, and rules were used to decide when the
wheel motor should be removed. We had no wheel motors
removed due to unexpected failure while in operation. We had
94 wheel motors removed due to CM readings. Examining the
maintenance reports associated with the "rebuilds" it was
identified that 32 of the motors could be classed as "failures",
i.e. had been removed shortly before one might have expected
a functional failure, whereas the other 62 could be classed as
"premature removals". That is, they had useful life left in them
and could have safely been left in service. So when building
the risk model for wheel motor failures the 32 "good"
removals were treated as "failures" and the other 62 as
"suspensions". (i.e. only 34% of the removals were "good"
removals)
5. THE FUTURE
Funding has been secured for a further period of three years
to continue the development of theory, primarily through the
research students and post-doctoral fellows and associated
tools, primarily software enhancement to EXAKT, through the
staff of the CBM Laboratory. The development work is
substantially influenced through semi-annual meetings that
take place between CBM Lab staff and consortium members.
The overall goal of the work that is taking place during the
period 2001 -2003 is to enhance maintenance managers'
decision-making when dealing with equipment whose health is
monitored through either oil analysis or vibrarion moniroring.
The planned work would enhance the EXAKT software
(version 2.2 released in June 2000 to Consortium members) in
three aspects:
5.1. Software features. This includes:
Enhancing data cleaning features
-Assisting in the integration of EXAKT with CMMSs
or EAM systems of Consortium members
Enhancing data base flexibility: organizing data in a
sequential form
Including two types of analysis, such as oil and
vibration, in one model
5.2. Statistical features. This includes:
Enhancement of the general statistical analysis option
Estimation of the conditional reliability function and
remaining useful life
5.3. Model building features. This includes:
95
 Combined age preventive and condition-based
strategy
Using different costs, depending on the age (e.g. cost
of failure up to minimal preventive replacement
time). Also, inclusion of variable cost of inspection
(this can influence the policy)
Decision policy that utilizes risk of failure in a given
interval, with or without costs (e.g. upper risk limit is
given, and may be costs: if acceptable risk is P = 1,
then this is our previous case; if costs are zero, then
only risk matters)
Cost analysis of the real data
Improvements in handling repairable systems (such
as taking into account conditions of an item at
installation - say, age and state - in modeling and in
decision: it requires improvements in data
organization such as generalization of
CovariatesOnEvents table to handle values not in
inspection table, hut not given as defau1t)and would
enhance the currently developed mathematical
models by developing procedures for estimation and
control in stochastic models o f partially observable
systems. The research will focus on the following
three areas:
5.3. I . Development of procedures for state estimation
(e.g. estimation of machine condition), model parameter
estimation (e& probability of machine health going from one
condition to another) and optimal control for a deteriorating,
partially observable system subject to failure. Examples of
such systems are complex repairable systems with different
levek o f information. (For example, systems where only cost
and operating age information is available (level I), systems
subject to condition monitoring at discrete points of time
where the information is obtained through oil analysis, visual
inspection and testing and vibration monitoring (level 2)).
5.3.2. Development of integrated models of complex
systems with a special focus on optimizing jointly
maintenance decision-making and inventory control of spare
parts.
5.3.3. On-line adaptive control of processes subject to
random change in process parameters. The objective will be to
develop recursive procedures for parameter estimation and
economically designed schemes for quality control.
The reference probability approach to optimal filtering and
control in discrete time will be applied when tackling these
three problem areas. The theoretical results obtained in this
research will enable the researchers to hrther develop CBM
models that will he embedded in the EXAKT software used
first by consortium members, and then made available
generally.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Preparation of this paper would not have been possible
without the guidance and support of the research group in the
CBM Laboratory at the University of Toronto, especially
Professor V. Makis, Dr. D. Banjevic and Mr. M. Wiseman. A
special appreciation is due to Angelo Gentiles, an NSERC
summer student, for researching various techniques use by
96 2002 PROCEEDINGS .4nnrm/ RELIABILITY and MAINTAlNABlLITY .Svniporposiuni
organizations to implement smart equipment condition
monitoring.
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18. A.K.S. Jardine, D. Banjevic, M. Wiseman, S. Buck, and
T. Joseph, Optimizing a Mine Haul Truck Wheel Motors
Condition Monitoring Program: Use of Proportional Hazards
Modeling, Journal of Qualify in Maintenance Engineering,
2001 (in press).
BIOGRAPHY
Andrew K.S. Jardine, PhD, C.Eng, P.Eng
Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Condition-based Maintenance Laboratory
University of Toronto
...
Internet (e-mail): jardine@mie.utoronto.ca
where he obtained his Ph.D., and was a member of its
Department of Engineering Production.
In 1993 Professor Jardine was honoured by the Institution of
Engineers Australia being named the Eminent Speaker to their
Maintenance Engineering Society. In 1998 he was the first
recipient of the Sergio Guy Memorial Award from the Plant
Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada in
recognition of his outstanding contribution to the maintenance
profession.

Dr. Jardine is Professor of Industrial Engineering in the

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and
Principle Investigator in the Condition Based Maintenance
Laboratory at the University of Toronto, Canada. He also
serves as a Senior Associate Consultant to the Global Leader
of PricewaterhouseCoopers Physical Asset Management
Group. Professor Jardine has been actively involved for over
~

25 years - with teaching, research and the application of

scientific techniques to real-world decisions associated with
equipment maintenance, replacement and reliability. A native
of Scotland, he attended Strathclyde University where he was
awarded undergraduate and graduate degrees. From
Strathclyde he went to the University of Birmingham, England

2002 PROCEEDINGS Annual RELIABLITY and MAINTAINABILITY Symposium 97