Coordinated optimization of production scheduling and maintenance activities with machine reliability deterioration

Abstract

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>In this paper, we investigate a coordinated optimization problem of production and maintenance where the machine reliability decreases with the use of the machine. Lower reliability means the machine is more likely to fail during the production stage. In the event of a machine failure, corrective maintenance (CM) of the machine is required, and the CM of the machine will cause a certain cost. Preventive maintenance (PM) can improve machine reliability and reduce machine failures during the production stage, but it will also cause a certain cost. To minimize the total maintenance cost, we must determine an appropriate PM plan to balance these two types of maintenance. In addition, the tardiness cost of jobs is also considered, which is affected not only by the processing sequence of jobs but also by the PM decision. The objective is to find the optimal job processing sequence and the optimal PM plan to minimize the total expected cost. To solve the proposed problem, an improved grey wolf optimizer (IGWO) algorithm is proposed. Experimental results show that the IGWO algorithm outperforms GA, VNS, TS, and standard GWO in optimization and computational stability.</p>