Integration of maintenance criteria into the design process of agricultural equipment in Burkina Faso

Agricultural mechanization in Africa, and particularly in Burkina Faso, remains significantly constrained by the mismatch between the maintenance requirements of imported two-wheel tractors and local maintenance conditions. In this context, the present study addresses the integration of maintenance criteria into the design of a two-wheel tractor by relying on the Preliminary Analysis of Maintenance Criteria (APCMA) tool, developed for the design of equipment intended for small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries.
APCMA is a graphical tool comparable to a “maintenance wall”, collaboratively constructed by the various stakeholders involved in maintenance. Through the identification of “missing bricks” and the overall wall profile, it highlights the key maintenance-related aspects that should be considered during the equipment design phase. The maintenance criteria, scored by stakeholders, are mathematically modeled within an evaluation space based on statistical medians. This approach made it possible to determine the ideal representative score for assessing a maintenance criterion from the perspective of multiple stakeholders.
To this end, a field survey was conducted involving 33 stakeholders from different categories, leading to the identification of 17 maintenance criteria for the two-wheel tractor to be incorporated into the co-construction of the initial wall. Based on this analysis, 11 context-oriented maintenance design solutions were proposed to fill the missing bricks and achieve the final/target wall, which enabled the design and development of a two-wheel tractor prototype. In addition, Python 3.12 application was developed and integrated into the automated design decision-making process.
The results demonstrated the transformation of the initially deficient wall into an optimal final projection, thereby validating the selected maintenance criteria while reducing the production cost by 40% compared with imported models. This prototype provides a sustainable alternative for both small-scale and large-scale farmers.