Reliability, Risk and Safety: Theory and Applications Bri,

Guedes Soares & Martorell (eds)

2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-55509-8

A new maintenance management model expressed in UML

M.A. Lpez Campos, J.F. Gmez Fernndez & V. Gonzlez Daz

Department of Industrial Management, School of Engineering, University of Seville, Spain.

A. Crespo Mrquez
Industrial Management School of Engineering, University of Seville, Spain

ABSTRACT: This article shows part of the process of designing and modeling a new maintenance management
model completely aligned to the quality management standard ISO 9001:2008 and expressed using the Unified
Modeling Language (UML); the features of this modeling language gives the possibility of easily integrate the
maintenance process into the general information system of an organization and to create a flexible structure
to adapt it to new necessities. This article begins describing the suggested new maintenance model and the
methodology used to design it; next are exposed some important concepts about processes modeling and then
some of the modeled diagrams are presented: the general architecture, the goals tree diagram, an specific process
(Control & Improvement) and a state diagram for the Maintenance Work Order. This paper finishes with the
conclusions and the references used during the research.

1 INTRODUCTION Management Group, 2008). This involves managing

Maintenance has been experiencing a slow but con-
stant evolution across the years, from the former
concept of necessary evil up to being considered
an integral function to the company and a way of
competitive advantage.
Since approximately 3 decades, companies realized
that if they wanted to manage maintenance ade-
quately it would be necessary to include it in the
general scheme of the organization and to manage it
in interaction with other functions (Pintelon, 1992).
In this way implanting a high-quality model to drive
maintenance activities, embedded in the general man-
agement system of the organization has become a
research topic and a fundamental question to reach the
effectiveness and efficiency of maintenance manage-
ment and to fulfil enterprise objectives (Prasad, et al.
2006).
On the other hand it is known that for a significant
number of organizations every activity or important
action realised has its reflection on its information sys-
tem; it means that the enterprise information system is
a basic element to consider for the implementation of
a maintenance management system. In fact, the most
desirable situation is the complete integration of the
maintenance management operations into the general
information system (Vanneste, 1995, p.248).
To deal with the mentioned integration, this inves-
tigation proposes the uses of the BPM (Business
Process Management) methodology, which aim is to
improve the efficiency through the management of
business process that are modelled, automatized, inte-
grated, controlled and continuously optimized (Object
change in a complete processes life cycle.
Using BPM methodology it would be possible mod-
eling a particular maintenance management process
and afterwards connect this model with a general
information system. In this way, it would be created
a flexible management process that if it needs to be
changed to adapt its activities to new necessities, it
will be quickly and even automatically modified into
the enterprise information system (Framian, 2007).
This article shows part of the results obtained in the
process of designing a new maintenance management
model (MMM), completely aligned to the quality man-
agement standard ISO 9001:2008 and also expressed
using UML.
2 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT MODELS
In the historical development of maintenance, diverse
authors have proposed what they consider the best
practices, steps, sequences of activities or models to
manage this function. To begin with this investigation
it was done a bibliographical search covering the analy-
sis of some different maintenance management models
developed since January 1990 until February 2008.
In this analysis were considered the following mod-
els: Pintelon and Van Wassenhove (1990), Pintelon
and Gelders (1992), Vanneste and Wassenhove (1995),
Campbell (1995), Riis, et al. (1997), Kelly and Harris
(1997), Wireman (1998), Duffuaa (2000), Hassanain,
et al. (2001), Campbell (2001), Tsang (2002), Waeyen-
bergh and Pintelon (2002), Murthy, et al. (2002),
Cholasuke, et al. (2004), Abudayyeh, et al. (2005),

501
Figure 1. Maintenance management model proposed.
Pramod, et al. (2006), Prasad, et al. (2006), Kelly
(2006), Tam, et al. (2007), Soderholm, et al. (2007)
and Crespo (2007).
A special mention is for the Publicly Available
Specification PAS 55, published in April 2004 by the
British Standards Institution (BSI) which covers the
requirements for good asset management. The model
appearing in this standard was also considered for the
accomplishment of this investigation.
From the analysis of the mentioned maintenance
models (comparing them between them and with
the ISO 9001:2008) were identified the elements
and desirable ccharacteristics for a new, modern and
efficient MMM. These elements are: input-output
processes approach, clear methodology of applica-
tion, generation of documents and records, objec-
tives entailment, incorporation of support technolo-
gies, orientation to operate in computer maintenance
management systems (CMMS), flexibility to adopt
modern technologies (e-maintenance, expert systems,
etc), management of material, human and informa-
tion resources, focus on the constant improvement,
cyclical, among others.
All these elements were considered for designing
the new MMM. In addition it is important to mention
that the model proposed in this article results from
its real life application, improving maintenance man-
agement schemes in several Spanish companies. This
means that an initial validation of the model comes
from its practical origin.
Another interesting observation from the real life
experience is: although some of the ERP that currently
exists in the market have maintenance modules, there
are several functions that can be still added to improve
the maintenance management.
This proposed new MMM includes those par-
ticular functions as novel specific techniques for
502
the maintenance performance. These techniques are
described (using use case diagrams, sequence dia-
grams, object diagrams and other artifacts) in the more
profound levels of the new MMM, although in this
paper we do not refer to them in detail.
3 NEW MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT
MODEL PROPOSED
An important characteristic of the proposed new
MMM is its relationship with the ISO standard
9001:2008. This standard is chosen since it is the
international reference for any quality management
system, which turns into a generic guide for a pro-
cess operation in which fulfillment with requirements
should be demonstrated, such as the case of the main-
tenance function. In the same way, PAS 55 offers
valuable information about the maintenance manage-
ment process. The general operation of the new MMM
is presented in Fig. 1.
The model begins and finishes with the require-
ments and satisfaction of the interested parts, here
called stakeholders using the concept proposed by
Soderholm, et al. (2007) and that is in line with the
expressed by the ISO 9004:2008 standard. Also this
model is designed to be efficiently used across the
organization levels (reminding Pintelon and Gelders
(1992) who proposed a model to be executed in three
organizational activity levels).
This model is made up of four modules or macro-
processes, each one containing inside several pro-
cesses that are specified in sub-processes and tasks.
The four macro-processes are Planning, Support,
Maintenance Execution and Control & Improvement.
The Plannig macro-process is conformed by three pro-
cesses: Long term planning, medium term and short
term. The Support processes are: Human resources
management, Spare parts and materials management,
Infrastructure management and Information manage-
ment. The Control & Improvement macro-process is
composed by Measurement & Assessment process and
by Improvement process.
It is to be noted that planning (long term) entails
the top Direction of Maintenance. The medium lev-
els perform the support processes and control the
maintenance execution. The level that executes main-
tenance also generates data to be used in the continual
improvement of the maintenance function.
In the same way, the structure of this model makes
possible the existence of a link among the maintenance
function and the other organizational functions.
Into the model proposed, each one of the processes
(planning, support processes, maintenance execution
and control and improvement) is defined by UML
diagrams using the Eriksson-Penker Business Exten-
sions that indicate the sequence of activities for the
execution of every stage.
Regarding information standards, there is an impor-
tant not-for-profit trade association dedicated to devel-
oping and encouraging the adoption of open informa-
tion standards in operations and maintenance (O&M):
MIMOSA. The Common Conceptual Object Model
(CCOM) provides a foundation for all MIMOSA
standards, while the Common Relational Information
Schema (CRIS) provides a mean to store enterprise
O&M information. MIMOSA also provides meta-
data reference libraries and a series of information
exchange standards using XML and SQL. Our model
can be considered a management reference model,
i.e. describes the processes and the information flows
required to properly manage maintenance. Then, this
MMM is therefore linked with MIMOSA. In fact, all
O&M information handled by the proposed model can
(should) be structured according to MIMOSA stan-
dards (for instance), although this subject is out of the
scope of this paper.
4 MODELING A BUSINESS PROCESS
Business process modeling has been used in industry
since the 1990s to obtain a global vision of pro-
cesses by means of support, control and monitoring
activities (Russel et al., 2006), to facilitate the com-
prehension of the business key mechanisms, to be a
base for the creation of appropriate information sys-
tems, to improve the business structure and operation,
to show the structure of changes made in business,
to identify outsourcing opportunities, to facilitate the
alignment of the information and communication tech-
nologies with the business needs and strategies (Beck,
et al., 2005), and for other activities like the automatic
documents processing (Kalnins and Vitolins, 2006).
Nevertheless, during the last years, the research in
this field has increased enormously and with it and
the applications of the technology advances, business
process modeling has been used in fields as diverse
503
as: planning of managerial resources (ERP), integra-
tion of managerial applications (EAI), management of
the relations with the clients (CRM), management of
work flows (WFM) and communication among users
to facilitate the management requirements (Russel,
et al. 2006) (Ramzan and Ikram, 2007).
Some benefits reported from the adoption of busi-
ness process modeling are: improvement of the accom-
plishment speed of business processes, increase of the
clients satisfaction, optimization and elimination of
unnecessary tasks and incorporation of clients and
partners in the business processes. (Prez, 2007).
Software process and Business process present cer-
tain similarities, being the most common of them the
fact that both try to capture the principal characteristics
of a group of partially tidy activities that are carried out
to achieve a specific goal. Now then, whereas the aim
of a process software is to obtain a software product
(Acua and Ferr, 2001), the aim of a business process
is to obtain beneficial results (generally a product or
service) for clients or others affected by the process
(Sharp and McDermott, 2000).
In fact, the origins of the different business process
modeling languages are inspired in the software mod-
eling languages; as well a computer approach defines
modeling as the designing of software applications
before coding (OMG), this approach has allowed the
development of several languages and applications for
code generation and processes automation, which have
been notoriously increased in quantity and diversity
specially during the last two decades.
There are a large number of business processmod-
eling languages. In a general classification a modeling
language can be graphical or textual (Xiao He, 2007).
Considering that the objective of this research is to
model a new business process and that it is desired
to work with a graphical representation, an analysis
of the different options reveal that the better choice is
using UML language; which is a standard maintained
by the OMG (Object Management Group).
UML was created in 1997 by the called three
friends: Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh and Ivar
Jacobson, who put it to consideration of the OMG,
being accepted as a standard since the same year.
UML is formed by nine kinds of diagrams that
show a specific static or dynamic aspect of a system
(Aguilar-Savn, 2004).
For this research the software chosen to model the
system is Enterprise Architect 7.1, an UML analy-
sis, design, documentation and project management
CASE tool, including basic UML models plus testing,
metrics, change management, defect tracking and user
interface design extensions; developed by Sparx Sys-
tems. Enterprise Architect 7.1 was chosen because its
features and its availability to support this research.
Using Enterprise Architect 7.1, the general steps
to model the proposed MMM and that are shown in
this article are: (i) definition of the business archi-
tecture, (ii) modeling of goals tree, (iii) identification
of top value chain process, (iv) modeling of involved
processes and activities, (v) tracing required UML
diagrams to represent specific features of the system
(i.e. state diagrams).
5 BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE
AND STRATEGY
Figure 2 shows a diagram generated using the Enter-
prise Architect 7.1 software and that represent the
general business architecture of the proposed MMM.
This diagram contains the three principal categories
defining the architecture: the Business Context (mod-
els of all involved stakeholders, mission and vision
statements, business goals and physical structure of
the business as-is), the Business Objects (a domain
model of all objects of interest and their respective
data), and the Business Workflows (business pro-
cess drawing on stakeholders, structures and objects
Figure 2. General business architecture for the proposed
MMM.
504
defined in the Context and Objects packages show-
ing how these work together to provide fundamental
business activities).
Generally the business architecture is organized
hierarchically in order executives can observe how
specific processes are aligned to support the organiza-
tions strategic aims (Harmon, 2007).
Due there is not a standard to name the process
levels, the proposed MMM has its own nomenclature
to refer to its hierarchical levels.
Once defined the type of architecture to be used it
is necessary to model the system goals as a part of the
strategy.
In Fig. 3 is represented the goals tree designed for
the proposed MMM using a specific type of UML
diagram: an object diagram. In these diagrams a goal
is described as class object with the stereotype goal.
Due it is the design of a new system all the goals are
of qualitative type.
For this MMM it is considered the main goal as to
improve continuously the maintenance system and
that it depends on the fulfilment of other three goals
(identified by a dependency line): to decrease the total
maintenance cost, to increase the assets availability
and to attend property the non confor mances detected
in the maintenance management system.
It is necessary to notice that the first two aims (to
decrease the total maintenance cost and to increase
the assets availability) are contradictory goals and are
identified using an association line between them.
Also the fulfilment of each one of the already
mentioned goals depends on another series of hier-
archical goals (or sub-goals), which have to be totally
or partially achieved, a tag indicates this condition.
The macro-processes, processes and activities
described in the model are focused to the satisfaction
of the objectives drafted in the goals tree diagram.
6 MODELING THE PROPOSED
MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The top value chain process of the proposed MMM
(or Level 0 process) is conformed by the already
mentioned four macro-processes: Planning, Support,
Maintenance Execution and Control & Improvement.
Subsequently each macro-process is conformed by
processes (Level 1 processes) and each process is sub-
divided in sub-process (Level 2 processes), finally
each process is subdivided in activities (Level 3
processes).
As an example of modeling, in Fig. 4 appears an
UML diagram in which the Control & Improvement
macro-process (Level 1) is modeled.
Every macro-process and process modeled has
some invariable related elements: one or several goals
associated using a dependence relation with the stereo-
type achieve (these goals are derived from the goals
tree); input resources, output resources, both linked
using dependence relations, supply resources with a
Figure 3. Goals tree diagram for the proposed MMM.
dependence relation and the stereotype supply and
control resources having the stereotype control.
The mentioned elements are visible in the diagram
of Fig. 4.
Inside the macro-process of Control & Improve-
ment there are some other processes (Level 2) and
activities (Level 3). To represent them it could be used
also an UML diagram or a more specific tool like a
BPMN diagram, a simple flow diagram. That decision
depends on the project specifications.
Finally Fig. 5 represents an UML State Diagram
detailing the transitions or changes of state that an
object (in this case a Maintenance Work Order) can go
through in the system. This kind of diagrams shows
how an object moves from one state to another and the
rules that govern that change.
State charts typically have a start and end condition
(Milestone Consulting, 20012007).
505
7 CONCLUSIONS
The maintenance model expressed in this work departs
from an analysis done to a set of representative
previous models, in order to have a new model con-
stituted by the best characteristics observed. The
modeling work has involved a research about some
basic concepts (business process, modeling, model-
ing language, business architecture, etc.) to select
the most suitable language and software tool for the
particular case.
In this paper is presented only a significant part of
the modeling process made about the proposed model.
The MMM modeled is strongly inspired by the ISO
9001:2008 standard. A future challenge in this area
could be the addition of elements derived of the PAS
55 as well as technical tools recommended to the oper-
ation of the maintenance function. Increasing the depth
Figure 4. UML Diagram of the macro-process of control & improvement.

Figure 5. State diagram of a maintenance work order.

506
of a particular process of the model and doing it more
specific could add also its value. Code generation
(with everything it implies) would be a subsequent
objective for this maintenance model proposal and a
good opportunity of applying it in a practical case.
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