Dynamic scheduling of a preventive maintenance programme

Abstract

With the increasing cost of labour and materials, preventive maintenance (PM) programmes are becoming more prevalent. For large companies and institutions, however, manually controlled PM programmes can be quite burdensome and inefficient. A computerized PM system is discussed in this paper that enables an institution or company with a large equipment inventory to establish a manageable, adaptive PM programme. The system centres around a prioritized, dynamic scheduling routine. All PM inspections are scheduled based on when they were actually last done, not when they were supposed to have been done. Since this creates the possibility of having more work than can be accomplished, priority functions were developed. These functions assign a priority to each inspection that is due, and the highest priority work is scheduled. This type of scheduling provides management with many capabilities that are not normally available. It also provides them with a system that is responsive to a transient environment. An a...