Preventive maintenance optimisation of multi-equipment manufacturing systems by combining discrete event simulation and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms

Abstract

This paper is focused on preventive maintenance optimisation in manufacturing environments, with the objective of determining the optimal preventive maintenance frequencies for multi-equipment systems under cost and profit criteria. The initiative considers the interaction of production, work in process material, quality and maintenance aspects. In this work the suitability of discrete event simulation to model or modify complex system models is combined with the aptitude that multi-objective evolutionary algorithms have shown to deal with multi-objective problems to develop a maintenance management and optimisation approach. An application case is performed where the activities applied on a system that produces hubcaps for the car making industry, showing the quantitative benefits of adopting the detailed approach.