Correspondence analysis of repair data: a case study for electric cable shovels

In mining operation, effective maintenance scheduling is very important because of its effect on the performance of equipment and production costs. Classifying equipment on the basis of repair durations is considered one of the essential works to schedule maintenance activities effectively. In this study, repair data of electric cable shovels used in theWestern Coal Company, Turkey, has been analyzed using correspondence analysis to classify shovels in terms of repair durations. Correspondence analysis, particularly helpful in analysing cross-tabular data in the form of numerical frequencies, has provided a graphical display that permitted more rapid interpretation and understanding of the repair data. The results indicated that there are five groups of shovels according to their repair duration. Especially, shovels numbered 2, 3, 7, 10 and 11 required a repair duration of <1 h and maintained relatively good service condition when compared with others. Thus, priority might be given to repair them in maintenance job scheduling even if there is another failed shovel waiting to be serviced. This type of information will help mine managers to increase the number of available shovels in operation.