Planning and management of aircraft maintenance using a genetic algorithm

Abstract

The aim of the article was to develop a tool to support the process of planning and managing aircraft (ac) maintenance. Aircraft maintenance management has been presented for scheduled technical inspections resulting from manufacturers’ technical documentation for ac. The authors defined the problem under investigation in the form of a four-phase decisionmaking process taking into account assignment of aircraft to airports and maintenance stations, assignment of crew to maintenance points, setting the schedules, i.e. working days on which aircraft are directed to maintenance facilities. This approach to the planning and management of aircraft maintenance is a new approach, unprecedented in the literature. The authors have developed a mathematical model for aircraft maintenance planning and management in a multi-criteria approach and an optimisation tool based on the operation of a genetic algorithm. To solve the problem, a genetic algorithm was proposed. The individual steps of the algorithm construction were discussed and its effectiveness was verified using real data.