Sponsor:

Air Force Research Laboratory

Research Team:

C. Richard Cassady, Jason Honeycutt, Mauricio Carrasco , Stephen Ormon, Scott J. Mason, Kellie Schneider , Chase E. Rainwater

Universities Involved:

University of Arkansas

Start Date:

11/14/02

End Date:

06/30/03

Summary:

The objective of this research is to investigate the use of a mathematical modeling methodology for integrating maintenance planning and sortie scheduling issues for the Air Force Research Laboratory.
The project followed this order:

* Relevant research literature for both selective maintenance and fleet assignment is presented.
* Background research is presented, which extends a current selective maintenance model to incorporate sets of systems.
* Formulate a more complex optimization model that addresses a more dynamic mission profile.
All military organizations depend on the reliable performance of repairable systems for the successful completion of missions. The use of mathematical modeling for the purpose of modeling repairable systems and designing optimal maintenance policies for these systems has received an extensive amount of attention in the literature. Unfortunately, traditional studies in maintenance planning are limited in two key ways. First, they tend focus on a single system. This focus ignores the possibility that the system may be part of a fleet that shares responsibility for performing missions and resources for performing system maintenance. Second, they tend to ignore the mission profile of the system. This shortcoming prevents the modeler from considering important maintenance strategies including

* Performing maintenance during scheduled downtime, and
* Delaying maintenance to execute a critical mission.

For the USAF fleet, these limitations are too severe to provide meaningful guidance relative to fleet maintenance planning. For a single aircraft, maintenance decisions should be made relative to its mission schedule. In addition, sortie scheduling decisions should be managed with considerations for aircraft maintenance. Given that the USAF fleet shares maintenance resources (spares, labor, etc.) and performs missions as a group, this integrated scheduling/maintenance planning problem can become quite complex. The objective of this project is to investigate the use of a mathematical modeling methodology for managing the dynamic, maintenance planning and sortie scheduling problem.