Optimizing maintenance planning in the production industry using the Markovian approach

Abstract

Maintenance is an essential activity in every manufacturing establishment, as manufacturing effectiveness counts on the functionality of production equipment and machinery in terms of their productivity and operational life. Maintenance cost minimization can be achieved by adopting an appropriate maintenance planning policy. This paper applies the Markovian approach to maintenance planning decision, thereby generating optimal maintenance policy from the identified alternatives over a specified period of time. Markov chains, transition matrices, decision processes, and dynamic programming models were formulated for the decision problem related to maintenance operations of a cable production company. Preventive and corrective maintenance data based on workloads and costs, were collected from the company and utilized in this study. The result showed variability in the choice of optimal maintenance policy that was adopted in the case study. Post optimality analysis of the process buttressed the claim. The proposed approach is promising for solving the maintenance scheduling decision problems of the company.