An evaluation of maintenance policies for flexible manufacturing systems: A case study

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a case/simulation study that evaluated a number of potential maintenance policies for a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). Empirical data were used to structure the operation of the FMS, and to simulate its failures and repairs on the shop floor. Five maintenance policies – corrective, 30‐day preventive, 90‐day preventive, on‐failure opportunistic, and 30‐day opportunistic – were compared on four performance criteria: equipment utilization, machine downtime, through‐put, and average flow time. The “30‐day opportunistic” policy performed best overall, although the “corrective” policy was a close second, outperformed only in the area of equipment utilization. The “on‐failure opportunistic” policy performed poorly on every measure of system performance.

Citation

Vineyard, M., Amoako‐Gyampah, K. and Meredith, J.R. (2000), "An evaluation of maintenance policies for flexible manufacturing systems: A case study", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 20 No. 4, pp. 409-426. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570010319156