Optimal maintenance period and maintenance sequence planning under imperfect maintenance

Abstract Maintenance is essential for today's equipment or systems and maintenance costs account for a significant portion of the overall expenditure of devices. Maintenance period optimization and maintenance sequence planning are primary aspects of maintainability. To this end, this paper proposes an approach for maintenance period optimization and maintenance sequence planning, with the consideration of imperfect maintenance. A model of the total maintenance cost per unit time is set up, and the optimal time period for preventive maintenance is calculated. In addition, a new index is created to evaluate the maintenance efficiency of optimal maintenance sequences in different scenarios. The performance of the proposed method is validated by a maintenance sequence optimization and maintenance sequence planning of baggage handling systems. The results indicate that the proposed method is efficient and contributes to maintenance cost savings.