Component Maintenance Planning Optimization in Defense Aviation

Abstract

The primary objective in military aviation is to optimize operational readiness, the capability to perform assigned flight missions. This capability is influenced by aircraft downtime due to preventive maintenance at prescribed flight time intervals. In practice, flight planning incorporates preventive maintenance relative to the aircraft as a whole, but also to specific components that are subject to individual constraints. Optimization models have been developed to address the associated aircraft flight and maintenance planning problem, but none of these models addresses planning at the component level while retaining consistency with the aircraft planning outputs. Furthermore, no existing models adequately incorporate the main components of operational readiness. Lastly, practical approaches to this planning problem are reactive. To address these issues, this paper proposes a mixed integer linear programming model that solves the component flight and maintenance planning problem using component substitution scheduling while being aligned with overall aircraft flight and maintenance planning. In this manner, a pro-active, integrated approach is established. The proposed model has been applied towards Royal Netherlands Air Force CH47D Chinook helicopter fleet data, with results showing substantial improvements in critical operational readiness key performance indicators while showing strong reductions in the variability of the preventive maintenance demand and associated financial expenses.