Optimal maintenance schedule decisions for machine tools considering the user's cost structure

Abstract

This paper proposes a model for obtaining optimal preventive repair and replacement intervals of a machine tool subassembly considering the user's cost structure and the effect of major overhauls. Corrective actions are considered as minimal, whereas preventive repair and major overhauls are considered as imperfect in this paper. The objective is to obtain optimal repair/replacement decisions for the machine tool subassembly such that the expected life-cycle cost contribution over the whole life of the system is minimised. The proposed strategy improves over other existing strategies since it simultaneously considers the effects of the user's cost structure and major overhauls, while optimising the preventive repair and replacement intervals. A numerical illustration is provided to demonstrate the general application of the proposed approach.

Keywords:

• maintenance scheduling
• life cycle costing
• machine tools
• major overhauls

Acknowledgements

We extend our sincere thanks to Micromatic Grinding Technologies Limited, Ghaziabad (U.P.), India, for the promotion of this research project and sharing their experience and knowledge with us. The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees who helped improve the paper.