Open AccessBiomedical Machine Maintenance Scheduling
Author(s) -
Danielle Katz,
Serena Kim,
Alexandra King,
Elisha Palm,
John Dulin,
Justin Hill,
Greg Steeger
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
industrial and systems engineering review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2329-0188
DOI - 10.37266/iser.2021v9i2.pp110-116
Subject(s) - downtime , crew , preventive maintenance , reliability engineering , schedule , planned maintenance , computer science , population , scheduling (production processes) , corrective maintenance , reliability (semiconductor) , process (computing) , operations research , operations management , engineering , aeronautics , power (physics) , demography , physics , quantum mechanics , sociology , operating system
Tissue banks procure approximately 45,000 tissue donations per year, providing nearly 9,000,000 individuals (about half the population of New York) with life-enhancing and life-saving medical procedures. Proper biobank machine maintenance is imperative to this process. Mandatory forms of maintenance are critical to avoid unexpected malfunctions, which can halt operations and render samples unusable. Each machine has a unique reliability rate within the system; although some can quickly be repaired or replaced, many processes rely on limited machinery where even planned downtime can significantly influence the tissue processing. AlloSource, one of the largest tissue manufacturers in the United States, too often schedules these preventive events unnecessarily or inconveniently, resulting in machines breaking down at inopportune times. In response to these inefficiencies we ask, “What is the best consolidated and standardized equipment maintenance schedule that maximizes monthly maintenance events to ensure increased equipment availability while meeting the demand of the biomedical manufacturing network?” We use an optimization model to consider equipment reliability, downtime, availability, and demand to develop a preventive maintenance schedule. Our model focuses on scheduling the maximum number of events the maintenance crew can conduct each month to ensure vital equipment to the allograft process is available, which provides more opportunities for tissue therapies. In doing so, the maintenance crew is also able to complete more events, driving up annual throughput while driving down equipment downtime.