Title: Preventive maintenance scheduling of fleet of aircraft using contiguous-cells transportation model: a case study

Authors: Oladunni S. Okunade; Marian N. Obuseh; Oliver E. Charles-Owaba

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, University of Ibadan, Nigeria ' Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, University of Ibadan, Nigeria ' Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract: A fresh drive to increase effective aircraft-fleet operating hours has ignited interest in finding new ways to manage aircraft maintenance and flight schedules. Contiguous-cells optimisation, a recently developed approach to assets management, was reported to have yielded logistics advantages. This paper explores the feasibility and consequences of its application to aircraft-fleet alternate flight and preventive maintenance scheduling. A performance measure was formulated in terms of aircraft arrival period, maintenance duration and cost as parameters while completion period and flight-months are variables. A contiguous-cell transportation problem was defined and solved as that of combined flight-loss and maintenance cost minimisation. It was illustrated using a commercial airline with ten-aircraft fleet and two-dock maintenance workshop in Southwestern Nigeria. The cost ₦13,303 × 10⁶; flight-months 212; and idle-months three; favourably compare with ₦24,234 × 10⁶, 185, and 30 of the existing schedule, respectively. Thus, the approach appears feasible with the potential of increasing effective aircraft operating hours at a lower cost.

Keywords: fleet of aircraft; maintenance scheduling; opportunity cost; contiguous-cells transportation model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2021.118287

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2021 Vol.39 No.2, pp.247 - 269

Received: 07 Jun 2019
Accepted: 01 Nov 2019
Published online: 18 Oct 2021 *

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