A structured approach for shifting from TBM to CBM in the maintenance of freight locomotives

This paper presents findings from a survey into locomotive and train maintenance professionals’ insights about their current maintenance approaches and a short review of existing research literature to help provide greater understanding of why Time-based-maintenance (TBM) approaches are still dominant in the industry. Following that, a structured Condition-based-Maintenance (CBM) approach for freight locomotives’ maintenance that can be implemented to either complement or completely replace conventional TBM approaches adopted by the rail freight industry today is proposed. The foundation and most significant component of this approach is the critical review of the existing TBM regime, and the historical failure data using techniques such as Pareto Analysis and FMEA (Failure Mode & Effect Analysis). Once the critical review is completed, the structured approach experimentation and implementation stages can begin, which consist of the deployment of sensors and CBM techniques to detect problems on the locomotive by monitoring parameters such as vibration. An example of the structured approach application in the critical review stage is included in this paper using real failure data. The paper concludes with suggested future work to enable transition from TBM to CBM with a focus on components with the greatest impact on the maintenance organizational profitability.