This paper deals with the performance analysis of the bottling system of a beverage industry. Non-Carbonated Soft Drink Glass Bottle (NCSDGB) filling system was considered for the analysis. The line consists of seven subsystems, namely, Uncaser, Bottle Washer, Filling Machine, Pasteurizer, Cooling Tunnel, Crowner and Coding Machine. The system behavior is modeled using Markovian approach. To carry out the performance analysis, transition diagram of the system is drawn and various differential equations associated with it are derived. These equations are solved using normalizing conditions and recursive method to drive out the steady-state availability of the system, i.e., system’s performance criterion at different combinations of failure and repair rates of various subsystems. The results are helpful in the maintenance of the system and also in deciding the repair priorities of different subsystems.

With the continuous advancement of technology, the industrial systems are getting more and more complex, and consequently, maintaining them failure-free and operation-ready is a very tedious task. So, it is impossible for a business concern to survive without a reliable system. A company cannot achieve success if its systems are unreliable and unavailable. The availability analysis is desirable for long-working duration with good performance level of the systems in the industries to reduce cost and achieve higher productivity. Thus, reliability engineering is an important tool to determine and improve the systems’ performance which is widely used nowadays. The industrial systems are subject to failures due to various reasons such as improper design, poor maintenance and wrong operations. The failed systems can be brought back into working order within minimum possible time after repair. The performance of these systems is computed in terms of availability using mathematical modeling. The mechanical systems have attracted the attention of several researchers in the area of reliability analysis in the last four decades.

Mechanical Engineering Journal, Availability, Bottling system, Markov process, Performance modeling.