Joint maintenance and inventory optimization systems: A review

During the past decades, several joint maintenance and inventory optimization systems have been studied in literature. Compared to the sequential optimization of both models, Kabir and Al-Olayan (1996) reported a remarkable influence on total cost due to their joint optimization method. This review focuses on models that include cost and optimization parameters related to both maintenance and inventory. The purpose of this paper is to review the pertinent literature on joint maintenance and inventory optimization models for non-repairable parts and suggest possible gaps. A classification based on the following seven sets of criteria is made: inventory policies, maintenance characteristics, delays, multi-echelon networks, single-unit versus multi-unit systems, objective function and optimization techniques. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.