JQME
1,3
36
Maintenance control via
mathematical programming
Khaled S. Al-Sultan and Salih O. Duffuaa
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals,
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Introduction
In an organization, whether manufacturing or service, maintenance supports its
primary functions by keeping equipment in fit condition and safe to operate. It is
a key function in sustaining long-term profitability for any organization. The
efficiency and the effectiveness of the maintenance system plays a pivotal role in
the organization’s success and survivability. In recent years, emphasis has
changed from economy of scale to meeting market demand in terms of flexibility,
delivery, performance, and quality. This new trend puts maintenance in the
spotlight, since unavailability of means of production (equipment) will have a
drastic effect on delivery and performance. One way of handling unavailability
is to minimize it as much as possible by anticipating its occurrence, and
planning for it. A key function in maintenance which bears the responsibility for
minimizing unplanned unavailability is the maintenance control.
Maintenance control essentially deals with the co-ordination of demands (for
maintenance) and resources to achieve the stated objective of effectiveness and
efficiency. Production control deals with the same co-ordination problem on the
production side of the organization. Production control has been studied more
comprehensively, and numerous models exist in the literature which formulate
the problem of production control and try to improve its performance[1]. In
general, maintenance control has not received the same attention in the
literature as production control and the existing maintenance control systems
are not usually geared towards achieving flexibility[2].
Maintenance control consists of the following three basic functions: planning,
scheduling and control. The planning function reviews and evaluates the
demand for maintenance and develops the priorities of maintenance jobs
according to job criticality, then develops a plan for each job which includes the
needed manpower, spare parts and tools. In the scheduling function, the short-
term demands for maintenance are reviewed and a schedule is prepared for
maintenance jobs. The control function then monitors and evaluates the
progress of the jobs being performed. In the literature, these functions for
maintenance have been addressed separately. In “Applications of dynamic
scheduling rules in maintenance planning and scheduling”[3], Worral and Mert
developed a system for planning maintenance jobs, and in “Scheduling of plant
maintenance personnel”[4] and “Minimum problem-size formulation for the
scheduling of plant maintenance personnel”[5], Roberts and Escudero have
Journal of Quality in Maintenance
Engineering,
Vol. 1 No. 3, 1995, pp. 36-46.
© MCB University Press, 1355-2511