Abstract:
This thesis is a comparative analysis between meantime between failure (MTBF) and
maintenance free operating period (MFOP) of mills Asset Management at Anglogold
Ashanti Iduapriem Limited. Management often consider such factors considered in their
budgetary allocation. The work developed a methodology using the data on the Mills to
determine the health status of the Mills and to conduct a comparative analysis between
Maintenance Free Operating Period (MFOP) which is not popularly known in the Mining
Industries with the popularly known and frequently used reliability metric Mean Time
Between Failure (MTBF). The results indicates that the MTBF stoppage intervals were
0.1 to 0.3 weeks whiles that of MFOP ranges from 0.2 to 7.1 weeks. This indicates that
the MFOP gives mining firms higher reliability of equipment as compare to MTBF. The
result was affirmed by a mine site engineer who said “the existing maintenance metrics
(MTBF) has not been able to help Iduapriem mine to holistically deal with its maintenance
and breakdown challenges.” This work exposes the inherent errors in MTBF applications
and the benefits of applying MFOP, these errors have two significant implication from
regulators perspective and competitive edge of the organisation.
