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Heuristics for multicomponent joint replacement: Applications to aircraft engine maintenance
Author(s) -
Hopp Wallace J.,
Kuo YarLin
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
naval research logistics (nrl)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1520-6750
pISSN - 0894-069X
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6750(199808)45:5<435::aid-nav1>3.0.co;2-4
Subject(s) - heuristics , interval (graph theory) , computer science , joint (building) , heuristic , operations research , aircraft maintenance , downtime , mathematical optimization , service (business) , branch and bound , reliability engineering , engineering , mathematics , algorithm , aeronautics , artificial intelligence , economics , structural engineering , economy , combinatorics , operating system
This paper considers the maintenance of aircraft engine components where economies exist for joint replacement because (a) the aircraft must be pulled from service for maintenance and (b) repair of some components requires removal and disassembly of the engine. It is well known that the joint replacement problem is difficult to solve exactly, because the optimal solution does not have a simple structured form. Therefore, we formulate three easy‐to‐implement heuristics and test their performance against a lower bound for various numerical examples. One of our heuristics, the base interval approach, in which replacement cycles for all components are restricted to be multiples of a specified interval, is shown to be robustly accurate. Moreover, this heuristic is consistent with maintenance policies used by commercial airlines in which periodic maintenance checks are made at regular intervals. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 45: 435–458, 1998