Multi-objective preventive maintenance and replacement scheduling in a manufacturing system using goal programming

This research presents a new multi-objective nonlinear mixed-integer optimization model to determine Pareto-optimal preventive maintenance and replacement schedules for a repairable multi-workstation manufacturing system with increasing rate of occurrence of failure. The operational planning horizon is segmented into discrete and equally-sized periods and in each period three possible maintenance actions (repair, replacement, or do nothing) have been considered for each workstation. The optimal maintenance decisions for each workstation in each period are investigated such that the objectives and the requirements of the system can be achieved. Total operational costs, overall reliability and the system availability are incorporated as the objective functions and the multi-objective model is solved using a hybrid Monte Carlo simulation and goal programming procedure to obtain set of non-dominated schedules. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed solution methodology are demonstrated in a manufacturing setting and the computational performance of method in obtaining Pareto-optimal solutions is evaluated. Such a modeling approach and the proposed solution algorithm could be useful for maintenance planners and engineers tasked with the problem of developing optimal maintenance plans for complex productions systems. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.