Optimizing imperfect preventive maintenance in multi-component repairable systems under [formula omitted]-dependent competing risks

Failure predictions in repairable multi-component systems

Optimal preventive maintenance policy for leased equipment using failure rate reduction

PurposeThis paper aims to propose an approach for the optimization of imperfect preventive maintenance and corrective actions performed on a single machine. After maintenance, the machine returns to an age between “as good as new” and “as bad as old”.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is based on fuzzy logic and simulation‐based optimization. Fuzzy logic is preferred over crisp logic because it is relatively easy to implement in this situation considering that the human factor is hardly interpreted by analytical methods because of its unpredictable nature. Simulation‐based optimization is used to have a more reactive and accurate tool for practitioners.FindingsTaking into account the impact of the imperfections due to human factors, the period for preventive maintenance, which minimizes the expected cost rate per unit of time or maximizes the availability of the system, is evaluated by the simulation‐based optimization.Research limitations/implicationsDifferent and more realistic maintenance levels must be considered and the traceability of a specific system could be used to determine the most appropriate failure law. For this study, cost reduction was considered as the priority, but the model can be adjusted according to the user's preferences.Practical implicationsThis paper considers a single repairable machine as a system that undergoes periodic preventive and corrective maintenance actions. Considering maintenance imperfections, rule‐based fuzzy logic can be integrated into the maintenance program to determine the times for the periodic preventive maintenance actions.Originality/valueConsidering human factors in maintenance programs is indispensable to assure more accurate and realistic results. However, due to the difficulty engendered by their modeling, most theoretical maintenance models do not consider these factors. Therefore, the proposed fuzzy model in the paper can be an important tool to include them.

“Vehicle damage insurance” in China, “Protection Plus Mobile Elite” launched by Samsung, “iPhone Apple Care +” offered by Apple, and so on are special warranty services aiming at external shocks. These warranty terms, named accident insurance, exist widely in the marketplace. Considering the effect of external shocks on degradation, a two-dimensional preventive maintenance and replacement strategy for products, sold with a nonrenewing and two-dimensional rectangle warranty service, is proposed in this paper. Under this strategy, preventive maintenance actions are scheduled based on units of age or usage, which occurs first. There is a reduction in the intensity function after a preventive maintenance action. Each shock before the Nth shock causes a failure of the product or an increase in product failure rate. The product is replaced by a new one on the Nth shock if it survives the N − 1 shocks. From the view of manufacturers, the mean warranty servicing cost over the whole warranty region is obtained by using the renewal theory. Based on direct numerical Riemann–Stieltjes integration, an approximation algorithm of the cost is also given. The mean cost is minimized by the optimization of preventive maintenance interval and the number of shocks N. A numerical example is given to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed strategy. The effects of maintenance cost, the arrival rate of the shocks, and other model parameters on the optimal strategy are also investigated numerically.

An optimal dynamic interval preventive maintenance scheduling for series systems

Because of demanding higher operational efficiency and safety in industrial systems, system maintenance trends to the direction of high speed, high load and high automation. Reliability-centered preventive maintenance schedule plays an important role in production, but it is always a complex task to make such a plan. In this paper, the optimization of reliability-centered preventive maintenance (PM) for a single-equipment system can be proposed. In order to reduce downtime loss, several PM actions are performed together using the threshold for opportunity PM. By using Markov decision process method, the transition probability matrix for different PM actions can be obtained, and then the optimal combination problem on PM strategy can be developed. Finally, the optimal PM schedule which can provide the desired levels of reliability to a single-component system and minimize maintenance cost can be obtained. A case is used to demonstrate the implementation and potential applications of the proposed method.

Leasing has proven to be a business model that is perfectly suited to the circular economy. It significantly contributes to sustainable development by enabling the reuse of machinery and equipment after each lease period and by including preventive maintenance and overhauls within and between lease terms. This helps to extend the life cycle of equipment, promote value recovery, and reduce waste. This paper examines an imperfect preventive maintenance (PM) strategy applied to equipment rented under the terms of “free leasing”. In free leasing, the lessor makes the equipment available to the customer for a specified period of time without charging rent. In return, the customer is required to purchase the equipment’s consumables exclusively from the lessor. The lessor is also responsible for the maintenance of the equipment at the customer’s premises. The greater the quantity of consumables used by the customer, the more the equipment will deteriorate. Consequently, the lessor must be able to determine the most effective approach to preventive maintenance, ensuring that it aligns with the customer’s planned usage rate while maximizing profit. This work proposes a PM strategy to be adopted by the lessor during the free lease period. This strategy involves the performance of imperfect PM actions just before the start of the lease period and then periodically. Different packages of preventive actions can be applied each time, with each package having a different cost depending on the level of effectiveness in terms of rejuvenating the equipment. Minimal repairs are performed in the event of equipment failure. The decision variables are the PM period to be adopted and the maintenance efficiency level to be chosen for each preventive intervention. The objective is to determine, for a given customer with an estimated consumption rate profile of consumables, the optimal values of these decision variables so that the lessor maximizes their profit. A mathematical model is developed to express the lessor’s average profit over each lease period. A solution procedure is developed for small instances of the problem, and an Artificial Bee Colony algorithm is implemented for larger instances. A numerical example and a sensitivity analysis are presented.

Jet engines are critical assets in aircraft, and their availability is crucial in the modern aircraft industry. Therefore, their maintenance scheduling is one of the major tasks an airline has to make during an engine’s lifetime. A proper engine maintenance schedule can significantly reduce maintenance costs without compromising the aircraft's reliability and safety. Different maintenance scheduling approaches have been used for jet engines, such as corrective, preventive, and predictive maintenance strategies. Regarding the safety demands in aircraft industries, preventive maintenance is a frequent maintenance method for jet engines. However, preventive maintenance schedules are often use fixed maintenance intervals, which is usually suboptimal. This paper focuses on minimizing a jet engine's overall maintenance cost by optimizing its preventive maintenance schedule based on an engine’s comprehensive reliability model. A hierarchical optimization framework including the golden section search and genetic algorithms is applied to find the optimal set of preventive maintenance number and their times and the components to be replaced at those times during the jet engine's overall lifetime. The Monte Carlo simulation is used to estimate the engine’s failure times using their lifetime distributions from the reliability model. The estimated failure times are then used to determine the engine's overall corrective and preventive maintenance costs during its lifetime. Finally, an optimal preventive maintenance schedule is proposed for an RB 211 jet engine using the presented method. In the end, comparing the proposed method's overall maintenance cost with two other maintenance methods demonstrates the proposed schedule's effectiveness. The method presented in this paper is generic, and it can be used for other similar engineering systems.

This paper proposes an opportunistic maintenance policy for the multi-unit series production system, which is on the basis of the failure rate analysis. When system halts for performing preventive maintenance or opportunistic maintenance, the alternative decision of replacement and repair is made by economic evaluation of two types of maintenance actions. The optimal preventive maintenance plans in a finite time horizon can be obtained by adjusting the preventive and opportunistic maintenance threshold. A numerical example is given for illustrating the applications of the policy.

Often preventive maintenance (PM) performed to a pavement does not restore a condition to as good as new. This study presents a practical pavement maintenance policy based on imperfect PM and mechanistic–empirical analysis. The international roughness index is used as the condition indicator. The policy is based on an increased hazard rate model from one cycle to the next and on a minimum reliability threshold. Monte Carlo simulations are used to develop the reliability function of flexible pavements, from which the hazard rate function is determined. The change of hazard rate from one cycle to the next is modeled with the age reduction factor and the hazard-rate increase factor. The expected cost per unit time of the pavement is minimized such that the minimum reliability is always maintained. The minimization procedure produces the number of PM cycles required. Case studies are presented with analyses of results showing the application of the procedure. The study indicates that hazard-rate function increases over time, and more-frequent PM actions are needed when the selected threshold reliability level is higher.

Optimal preventive maintenance policy of the balanced system under the semi-Markov model

Repairable systems deteriorate with age and usage. In order to maintain acceptable reliability and prevent sudden failures, preventive maintenance (PM) is often applied to such systems. Scheduled PM actions can improve system availability and minimize losses due to breakdowns and failures. However, condition‐based PM is considered more relevant to system status than age‐based PM for deteriorating repairable systems. In this study, we consider the production yield rate as the condition variable when determining the optimal PM schedule. A non‐homogeneous Poisson process is used to describe the system deterioration, and the concept of system effective (virtual) age is also considered to make the proposed model more realistic. Three different condition‐based PM strategies are presented to provide more diverse choices for decision makers in terms of solving problems based on the situation at hand. The results show that the optimal yield rate threshold can reduce system failure while maintaining acceptable system availability and product quality with affordable costs due to a proper PM schedule. Furthermore, the results of the numerical application showed that the maintenance and penalty costs are the most sensitive to the total cost, where the adoption of the proposed PM strategies are more profitable when related costs are low.

This paper shows the application of Discrete Event Simulation to study the effect of proposed maintenance strategies to the availability. The simulation study was conducted on a Surface Mount Technology (SMT) line. The model is built in the Discrete Event Simulation software WITNESS 14 to imitate this selected case study line to test out two proposed maintenance strategies. The first proposed strategy consists of Corrective Maintenance (CM) task only whereas the second proposed strategy is the introduction of Preventive Maintenance (PM) to the line. The effect of the two cases to the availability of each machine and system availability were verified with the simulation model to determine the most optimal solution. Although the simulation testing did not show improvement in availability for all station after the introduction of PM, the increment in system availability indicate that PM is the most optimal maintenance strategy for the SMT line.

The preventive maintenance (PM) is scheduled periodically to restore the system condition. However, PM activities cannot generally restore the system to as good as new condition but in an intermediate situation, which is called imperfect PM. The PM interval optimization is useful for improving system reliability. A popular approach to optimization interval is minimizing the maintenance costs. The goal of this work is to obtain optimal PM intervals that minimize expected cost considered PM imperfect, in other words we obtain the optimal PM intervals assuming that the PM action restores the system operating state to be somewhere between as good as new and as bad as old. The results are applied in a real data and the PM is maintained at a decreasing sequence of intervals, which is more practical since most systems need more frequent maintenance with increased usage and age. Furthermore consider a wrong PM perfect hypotheses increase the maintenance cost substantially.

This paper studies the two-stage assembly flow shop problem (TAFSP) considering aging effects of the machines and preventive maintenance activities. At the first stage, m-1 parallel machines process parts of each jobs, and at the second stage, related parts of the jobs are assembled by one assembly machine. As the machines work on the jobs, their tools get aged. Aging effects on the machines causes that they will not be able to complete the jobs in the same time could as they were new or when they are operating jobs immediately after their preventive maintenance activity. Processing times of the job are related to the positions, in which it is located after the last preventive maintenance. The job that is operated in a position immediately after the preventive maintenance activity on a machine has its standard processing time. However, the processing time of the jobs operated in the further positions increase based on the number of the positions. The machines return to the initial condition after each preventive maintenance activity. The objective is to schedule the jobs on the machines and determine when the preventive maintenance activities get done on them in order to minimize the total weighted tardiness and maintenance costs. An integer mathematical model is presented for the problem and its validation is shown by solving an example in small scale. Since two-stage assembly flow shop problem is NP-hard, in order to solve the problem in medium and large scale two meta-heuristic algorithms, hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) and hybrid particle swarm optimization (HPSO) are proposed. These algorithms are the hybrid version of genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization representatively with simulated annealing. The algorithms are tuned by using Taguchi method, and are used to solve many numerical examples. Finally, the statistical analysis illustrates that the performance of HPSO is better than HGA.