An investigation into the economic efficiency of different maintenance strategies based on a discrete event simulation

Abstract

Many companies remain reluctant towards the implementation of a predictive maintenance (PdM) strategy, as investment costs for that are high and the remaining useful lifetime (RUL) estimates, which it is based on, are uncertain. Hence, it is unclear how viable a PdM strategy is. This paper is assessing the economic impact of a PdM strategy with the help of a discrete event simulation model, leading to the insight that a PdM strategy outperforms other strategies even in cases of highly uncertain RUL predictions. It leads to an increase in total running time up to 5 % and 4 %, compared to a reactive and a planned maintenance strategy, respectively.