Maintenance modelling and optimization in the industry 4.0 context: Applications to the maintenance and design of industrial vehicles

Abstract

This paper focused on the maintenance problems encountered by industrial vehicles within the Volvo Group. The main goal of the research on this subject was to propose to customers’ a personalized maintenance offer which adapts to their constraints while reducing the impact on the operating costs. To achieve this, a policy has been developed. This policy works on the dynamic gathering of information using both the available monitoring information and the knowledge of the multi-component system. Its objective is to guarantee to the customer the autonomy of its system over given periods of operation while minimizing the total cost of maintenance. The paper showed that the policy developed does indeed reduce the total maintenance cost compared to the previous policy used within the Volvo group. Nevertheless, this policy still has room for improvement.