Failure analysis for ultrasound machines in a radiology department after implementation of predictive maintenance method

Objective: The objective of the study was to perform quantitative failure and fault analysis to the diagnostic ultrasound (US) scanners in a radiology department after the implementation of the predictive maintenance (PdM) method; to study the reduction trend of machine failure; to understand machine operating parameters affecting the failure; to further optimize the method to maximize the machine clinically service time. Materials and Methods: The PdM method has been implemented to the 5 US machines since 2013. Log books were used to record machine failures and their root causes together with the time spent on repair, all of which were retrieved, categorized, and analyzed for the period between 2013 and 2016. Results: There were a total of 108 cases of failure occurred in these 5 US machines during the 4-year study period. The average number of failure per month for all these machines was 2.4. Failure analysis showed that there were 33 cases (30.5%) due to software, 44 cases (40.7%) due to hardware, and 31 cases (28.7%) due to US probe. There was a statistically significant negative correlation between the time spent on regular quality assurance (QA) by hospital physicists with the time spent on faulty parts replacement over the study period (P = 0.007). However, there was no statistically significant correlation between regular QA time and total yearly breakdown case (P = 0.12), although there has been a decreasing trend observed in the yearly total breakdown. Conclusion: There has been a significant improvement on the machine failure of US machines attributed to the concerted effort of sonographers and physicists in our department to practice the PdM method, in that system component repair time has been reduced, and a decreasing trend in the number of system breakdown has been observed.