Citation:
Abdullah Alabdulkarim, Peter D. Ball, Ashutosh Tiwari. Applications of simulation in maintenance research. World Journal of Modelling and Simulation, Vol. 9 (2013) No.1, pp14-37
Abstract:
The area of asset maintenance is becoming increasingly important as greater asset availability
is demanded. This is evident in increasingly automated and more tightly integrated
production systems as well as in service contracts where the provider is contracted to provide
high levels of availability. Simulation techniques are able to model complex systems such as
those involving maintenance and can be used to aid performance improvement. This paper
examines engineering maintenance simulation research and applications in order to identify
apparent research gaps. A systematic literature review was conducted in order to identify the
gaps in maintenance systems simulation literature. The methodology applied identified peer-
reviewed papers which were analysed for content and research direction. Simulation has been
applied to model different maintenance sub-systems (asset utilisation, asset failure,
scheduling, staffing, inventory, etc.) but these are typically addressed in isolation and overall
maintenance system behaviour is poorly addressed, especially outside of the manufacturing
systems discipline.