A systematic approach to determine the optimal maintenance policy for an automated manufacturing system

We propose a systematic approach to determine the optimal maintenance policy for an automated manufacturing system which includes a flexible manufacturing cell and several automated machine shops. The systematic approach combines simulation, fractional factorial design, noise or outer array of Taguchi design, regression metamodelling, and classical queueing analysis. A useful expression of the fractional utilization of the manufacturing system is derived and incorporated into formulating and solving the corresponding decision problem. The systematic approach provides an effective implementation procedure to handle practical maintenance problems found in a complex manufacturing environment.