A Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Model and a Simulated Annealing Algorithm for the Long-Term Preventive Maintenance Scheduling Problem

Abstract

This paper addresses a problem arising in the long-term maintenance programming of an iron ore processing plant of a company in Brazil. The problem is a complex maintenance programming where we have to assign the equipment preventive programming orders to the available work teams over a 52 week planning. We first developed a general mixed integer programming model which was not able for solving real instances using the CPLEX optimizer. Therefore, we also proposed a heuristic approach, based on the Simulated Annealing meta-heuristic, that was able to handle the instances.