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There is a growing need for maintenance engineers and asset managers who can plan the care of long life, high value assets for availability and performance. To maximise the potential cost-savings and efficiencies, organisations require confident professionals, able to develop customised asset management and maintenance routines that are feasible both in technical and cost terms.

This course will develop the skills required to plan, implement and critically assess strategic maintenance plans through a unique blend of taught content and hands-on implementation exercises. The ability to drive cost-effective maintenance strategies across a range of industry sectors opens up careers opportunities for our graduates globally.

Overview

  • Start dateOctober
  • DurationMSc: Full-time one year Part-time up to three years
  • DeliveryTaught modules 40%, Group project (or dissertation) 20%, Individual project 40%
  • QualificationMSc
  • Study typeFull-time / Part-time
  • CampusCranfield campus

Who is it for?

This course is suitable for graduates with engineering, maths, sciences or related degrees keen to pursue careers in industrial maintenance management (including planning, scheduling and control) and develop relevant technologies for maintenance engineering. It is also highly relevant to graduates currently working in industry keen to extend their qualifications and knowledge in this field alongside individuals with other qualifications who possess considerable relevant industry experience.

For employers interested in Degree Apprenticeships, please explore our Level 7 Apprenticeship MSc in Through-life System Sustainment.

Why this course?

The MSc in Maintenance Engineering and Asset Management is specifically aimed at developing your learning in the latest technologies and management strategies of maintenance and assets, with direct application the workplace. The main aim of the course is to deliver fundamental knowledge and a comprehensive set of skills to produce experts capable of transforming an organisation’s maintenance culture and strategy. It addresses the significant need for leaders in asset management and maintenance who can plan the care of long life, high value assets for availability and performance.

This MSc is unique in the advanced technical facilities available to you as a student as well as the practical application and experience you will gain as part of the taught content. You will take part in guest lectures from world leading organisations, invited to deliver talks about current exciting industrial practiced in the sector. You will also be exposed to industrial and academic research opportunities with world leading researchers as part of your group and individual research projects.

As a student, you will develop the skills to:

  • Identify critical assets for maintenance prioritisation.
  • Prioritise maintenance tasks/activities during maintenance planning.
  • Identify leading and lagging Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for continuous improvement of maintenance practices.
  • Develop methods to quantify and monitor the leading and lagging KPIs.
  • Assess the regular and sudden failures in machines and structures and determine their root cause.
  • Evaluate the suitability of inspection techniques in the context of real operation failures.
  • Elaborate on the potential risks in considered maintenance routines and recommend mitigation activities.
  • Assess the impact of technical and financial management on asset availability.
  • Solve the technical complexities in implementing new technologies to devise effective maintenance planning.
  • Evaluate the legal implications of a suggested maintenance routine and critically analyse its impact on health, safety and environment.
  • Build hands on expertise to use the tools and the techniques in implementing asset inspection and planning.
  • Prove the confidence in proposing customised maintenance routines in comparison with the OEM's suggested routines.
  • Develop strategy based maintenance frameworks suitable to any given industrial scenario.

The course is uniquely applied and practical by nature, aimed at availability of strategic assets. As a graduate you will be qualified to transform the current industry culture of an OEM’s based maintenance routines into strategy based maintenance.

Informed by Industry

The Maintenance Engineering and Asset Management MSc is designed to meet the training needs of industry and benefits from strong input from experts in the sector. In particular the guidance provided by the TES Council (including organisations such as Rolls-Royce, MoD, BAE Systems, Babcock International and Leonardo) as well as our industrial advisory board members (Petrofac, Siemens, Network Rail, Rolls-Royce)have been instrumental in developing cutting-edge modules and course content. The industrial advisory board (IAB) is co-led by Jonathan Neal from Rolls Royce.

Students who have excelled in their performances are recognised through course awards which are presented on Graduation Day by high profile organisations and individuals, and are often sponsored by our industrial partners.

Course details

The course will include eight taught compulsory modules, which are generally delivered from October to March.

The modules include lectures, tutorials and lab-based activities. These activities are designed to give you hands on knowledge and theory so as not to rely on technicians for machinery technical issues and are assessed through practical work, case studies, essays, presentations and tests. These provide the 'tools' required for the group and individual projects.

For any informal enquiries regarding technical course content, please contact:

Dr Muhammad Khan
Tel: +44 (0) 1234 754788
Email: Muhammad.A.Khan@cranfield.ac.uk

 

Course delivery

Taught modules 40%, Group project (or dissertation) 20%, Individual project 40%

Group project

The group project experience is highly valued by both students and prospective employers where teams of students work to solve an industrial problem. The project applies technical knowledge and provides training in teamwork and the opportunity to develop non-technical aspects of the taught programme. Part-time students can prepare a dissertation on an agreed topic in place of the group project.

Industrially orientated, our team projects have support from external organisations. As a result of external engagement, Cranfield students enjoy a higher degree of success when it comes to securing employment. Prospective employers value the student experience where team working to find solutions to industrially based problems are concerned.

Individual project

Students select the individual project in consultation with the Course Director. The individual project provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to carry out independent research, think and work in an original way, contribute to knowledge and overcome genuine problems.

Modules

Keeping our courses up-to-date and current requires constant innovation and change. The modules we offer reflect the needs of business and industry and the research interests of our staff and, as a result, may change or be withdrawn due to research developments, legislation changes or for a variety of other reasons. Changes may also be designed to improve the student learning experience or to respond to feedback from students, external examiners, accreditation bodies and industrial advisory panels.

To give you a taster, we have listed the compulsory and elective (where applicable) modules which are currently affiliated with this course. All modules are indicative only, and may be subject to change for your year of entry.


Course modules

Compulsory modules
All the modules in the following list need to be taken as part of this course.

Industrial Maintenance

Aim

    To emphasise the significance of effective maintenance.

Syllabus
    • Importance of Maintenance
    • Definition of Maintenance and objectives
    • Facilities investment decisions (FID)
    • Modelling of an industrial plant
    • Principles of Planned Preventive Maintenance (PM)
    • Total Productive Maintenance
    • Industrial case studies and issues with customisation
Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
1. Assess the significance of maintenance for an industry
2. Analyze the key factors for an effective maintenance
3. Distinguish the principles of preventive maintenance
4. Prepare a suitable maintenance procedure for real industrial scenario
5. Evaluate the feasibility of strategy based maintenance.

System Availability and Maintainability

Aim

    To examine the fundamental factors which influence the availability of complex engineering equipment, the cost of it’s through life support and its ultimate effectiveness throughout its service.

Syllabus
    • Availability, Effectiveness and User Requirements
    • Concept and definitions for system effectiveness.
    • Mean Time between Failure (MTBF) and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)
    • Failure rate and distribution
    • FMECA and FTA techniques
    • Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM).
    • Human Factors Integration (HFI)
    • Testing and Evaluation
    • Data collection and management/interpretation of data.
Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
1. Examine Availability, Reliability & Maintainability (A,R&M) and evaluate the influences on equipment availability and the particular influence of logistics.
2. Analyse the measures of A,R&M, how they are manipulated and applied and how their delivery can be assured.
3. Evaluate the A, R&M and Supportability (A,R,M&S) techniques used during concept, design, development, demonstration, production and trials.
4. Examine evaluation, test and system effectiveness and its assurance.
5. Examine the management issues for A,R&MS in providing operational availability at minimum Through Life Cost.

Failure of Materials and Structures

Aim

    To provide an understanding of why materials and structures fail and how failure conditions can be predicted in metallic and non-metallic components and structures.

Syllabus
    • Overview of failure behaviour of cracked bodies; crack size influence, brittle and ductile behaviour; influence of material properties. Cyclic loading and chemical environment. Thermodynamic criteria and energy balance; Griffith’s approach, modifications by Orowan. Strain energy release rate, compliance, applications to fibre composites.
    • LEFM and crack tip stress fields, stress concentration, stress intensity, plane stress and plane strain. Fracture toughness in metallic materials, fracture toughness testing, calculations of critical defect sizes and failure stress. Crack tip plastic zones; the HRR field, CTOD, J Elastic- plastic failure criteria. Defect assessment failure assessment diagrams.
    • Fracture of rigid polymers and standard tests for fracture resistance of polymers. Delamination fatigue tests. Emerging CEN/ISO standards, current ESIS test procedures.
    • Crack extension under cyclic loading; Regimes of fatigue crack growth; Influence of material properties and crack tip plastic zones; Calculation of crack growth life and defect assessment in fatigue; Crack closure and variable amplitude loading; Short cracks and the limits of LEFM.
    • Software design tools for fatigue crack growth.
    • Static loading-stress corrosion cracking; corrosion fatigue.
Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

1. Assess the different regimes and processes of failure of cracked bodies and describe the factors controlling them and the boundaries and limits between them.
2. Explain the principles of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) and demonstrate their application to cracks in brittle, ductile and fibre composites through calculation of static failure conditions.
3. Calculate the limits of applicability of LEFM and apply modified predictive tools such as elastic-plastic fracture mechanics and failure assessment diagrams for calculation of failure.
4. Appraise fracture mechanics to failure of cracked bodies under cyclic loads and under aggressive chemical environments to evaluate and predict service lives of structures.
5. Evaluate laboratory fracture mechanics data and critically assess its validity for application to particular engineering situations.

Condition Based Maintenance

Aim

    To provide an understanding about fundamentals of machine failure symptoms and inspection techniques.

Syllabus
    Introduction to failure analysis
    - Failure modes
    - Machinery component failures
    - Case studies of machine failures
    - Introduction to condition based maintenance
    - Machine condition monitoring techniques
    - Statistical data analysis and machine health diagnosis.
Intended learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

  • Assess and analyse the causes of machine failure symptoms
  • Examine suitability of failure analysis techniques on practical scenarios
  • Design and evaluate the steps of root cause failure analysis with feasibility
  • Estimate failure modes on visible or measured inspections
  • Evaluate the suitability of an inspection technique for different machine failures.



  • Maintenance Control and Planning

    Aim

      To highlight the feasibility of effective maintenance planning of industrial assets.

    Syllabus
      • The principles of work planning and work control
      • Asset and facilities maintenance requirements planning
      • Maintenance resources and capability planning
      • Inventory and supply chain management
      • Human Factors in Maintenance
      • Optimising Scheduled, unscheduled and condition based maintenance
      • Financial control in maintenance
      • Maintenance Management Systems
      • Lean maintenance
      • Industrial case studies
    Intended learning outcomes

    On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

    • Distinguish the principles of work planning and control
    • Assess the impact of schedule and non-schedule OEM's suggested maintenance routines
    • Appraise the role of Internet of Things (IoT) in maintenance planning and control
    • Propose maintenance routines suitable to industrial environment
    • Assess the technical feasibility and risks involved in strategy based maintenance routines.

    Diagnostics and Prognostics

    Aim

      To provide working knowledge on the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the alternative TES value drivers (avoid, contain, recover). The module will go in to detail on how Diagnostics, Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) technologies and maintenance management will add value for TES.

    Syllabus
      Introduction to the Diagnostics, PHM/CBM Design with emphasis on holistic life cycle design; Requirements, Metrics, and Cost Benefit; business intelligence, and system design for support solution
      Systems thinking for FMECA and PHM/CBM modelling process; Fault Detection and Isolation Approaches; and wider reliability and maintainability management
      Advanced R&D in PHM Algorithms; PHM/CBM Reasoning Methods and Examples; Prognostic Algorithm Approaches and Examples in relation to the design of a support solution
      Electronic/Software Systems PHM; Electronic Systems Diagnostic/Prognostic Examples
      PHM Metrics and V&V Methods; Additional Case Studies, Lessons Learned, and Issues




    Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:
    1. Assess the benefits of key concepts and techniques for maintenance planning, diagnostics and prognostics and health management.
    2. Evaluate activities to enable the avoidance of deterioration by identifying current Diagnostic and Prognostic technologies, and other technologies.
    3. Analyse how diagnostic and prognostic can assist with better intervention timing and content containing the deterioration.
    4. Create consequent maintenance plan (e.g. functional recovery) for asset health.
    5. Evaluate how to conduct maintenance management using PHM/CBM technologies.

    Asset Management

    Aim

      To provide introductory knowledge and coverage of Asset Management and highlight its business value within an organisation, as well as the role of Maintenance and Technology within Asset Management, enabling students to develop a practical knowledge of Asset Lifecycle Management, including Strategy, Planning, and Implementation, including Industry 4.0 technology enablers and Asset Management Services business models.

    Syllabus

      · Introduction to asset lifecycle management

      · Organisational context · Asset management leadership

      · Maintenance within asset management

      · Standards for asset management

      · Asset management policy and planning

      · Technology enablers and Industry 4.0

      · Asset management operations

      · Asset life-cycle costing

      · Business models and services

      · Industry case studies

    Intended learning outcomes

    On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

    1. Distinguish the key concepts of asset management, its business value for an organisation and the role of maintenance

    2. Examine the structure of asset life-cycle management.

    3. Assess and analyse current developments in technology (e.g. Industry 4.0 technologies, such as Internet of Things, Data Management and Analytics), and assess them.

    4. Evaluate asset management business models and formulate value propositions.

    5. Formulate asset management and application requirements and skills into effective action plans, through practical case studies from different sectors.


    Probability and Statistics in Risk and Reliability Engineering

    Aim

      To introduce the basic principles and fundamentals techniques of risk and reliability analysis and their potential applications to different engineering problems.

    Syllabus

      Introduction and Fundamentals of Risk Management and Reliability Engineering

      - Risk Management Process

      - HAZOP Analysis

      - Mathematics for Risk Studies and Basic Reliability Calculations

      - Online delivery

      - Probability Distributions- online delivery.

      - Reliability Block Diagrams and Systems Reliability

      - Time-based Systems Reliability- online delivery

      - Quantitative Reliability Analysis Modelling- online delivery

      - Consequence assessment, Risk Control and Decision Support Systems

      - Risk Control and Decision Support Systems

      - Insurance, Certification and Technology Qualification of Engineering Systems

    Intended learning outcomes

    On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

    1. Analyse the concepts and principals of risk and reliability engineering and their potential applications to different engineering problems.

    2. Assess and analyse appropriate approaches to the collection and interpretation of data in the application of risk and reliability engineering methods.

    3. Evaluate and select appropriate techniques and tools for qualitative and quantitative risk analysis and reliability assessment.

    4. Evaluate failure distributions, failure likelihood and potential consequences

    5. Develop solutions for control/mitigation of risks.

    Accreditation

    We are in the process of gaining accreditation from Institute of Asset Management (IAM), British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT) and Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).

    Your career

    This qualification takes you on to a wide range of careers involving maintenance engineering and asset management.

    Past graduates of this course have gone into roles including:

    • Reliability Engineer
    • Asset Engineer
    • Senior Consultant
    • System Engineer

    Companies that have employed our graduates include:

    • Boeing
    • UK Health Security Agency
    • Network Rail
    • SNC-Lavalin Atkins Transport Consulting & Advisory

    Cranfield’s Career Service is dedicated to helping you meet your career aspirations. You will have access to career coaching and advice, CV development, interview practice, access to hundreds of available jobs via our Symplicity platform and opportunities to meet recruiting employers at our careers fairs. Our strong reputation and links with potential employers provide you with outstanding opportunities to secure interesting jobs and develop successful careers. Support continues after graduation and as a Cranfield alumnus, you have free life-long access to a range of career resources to help you continue your education and enhance your career.


    Part-time route

    We welcome students looking to enhance their career prospects whilst continuing in full-time employment. The part-time study option that we offer is designed to provide a manageable balance that allows you to continue employment with minimal disruption whilst also benefiting from the full breadth of learning opportunities and facilities available to all students. The University is very well located for visiting part-time students from all over the world and offers a range of library and support facilities to support your studies.

    As a part-time student you will be required to attend teaching on campus in one-week blocks, for a total of 3-4 blocks over the 2-3 year period that you are with us. Teaching blocks are typically run during the period from October to March, followed by independent study and project work where contact with your supervisors and cohort can take place in person or online.

    We believe that this setup allows you to personally and professionally manage your time between work, study and family commitments, whilst also working towards achieving a Master's degree.

    How to apply

    Click on the ‘Apply now’ button below to start your online application.

    See our Application guide for information on our application process and entry requirements.

    Cranfield University is one of two universities in the world that offer a Maintenance Engineering course. I chose to study at Cranfield University due to its specialities in aviation research and strong relationships with the industry.

    A highlight from my time at Cranfield has been the international connections I have made, as I have met students from different nationalities.

    I also really enjoyed working on the student projects (GP and IRP), both projects have given me insight and hands-on experience into how to implement digitalisation in maintenance.

    I chose to study at Cranfield University as it offered coursed related to my job field and could enhance my skills in decision-making and leadership.

    A highlight from my time at Cranfield has been working on my thesis project as it has elevated my understanding of strategies, which will aid my decision-making skills.