Projects

Maintenance logistics is an important discipline that has received considerable attention both in practice and in the scientific literature. This importance is often due to the high investments associated with capital-intensive assets which in turn require a high operational availability (e.g. in high-tech production systems), and also due to the role of proper maintenance in preventing environmental damage (as happened in the 2010 BP accident in the Gulf of Mexico) or safety incidents (e.g. medical equipment, aircraft). Unplanned downtime of advanced capital equipment can be extremely expensive; for an average aircraft it is estimated at some 10,000 $ per hour and for a high-tech lithography system in the semiconductor industry it may amount up to 100,000 $ per hour. Consequently, unplanned downtimes should be avoided as much as possible, for example, by exploiting advanced condition monitoring techniques and preventive maintenance policies. However, if the downtimes still occur, they should be kept as short as possible by using optimal maintenance policies. The latter requires high availability of necessary resources, such as spare parts, tools, and service engineers.

Qatar has one of fastest developing economies and infrastructures in the world and it requires many new hi-tech solutions in different areas. This includes new transportation infrastructure and equipment, industrial and urban facilities, new sport and cultural centers. Proper maintenance system and infrastructure are and will be very important in the coming years in order to keep all the essential systems up and running.

The researchers have shown already that advanced mathematical modeling and smart planning can help to reduce the logistical costs associated with different maintenance processes by 40%-50% and at the same time reduce to the minimum the chance for downtimes and disastrous breakdowns.

In this project, an international team from Qatar and The Netherlands is improving the logistical processes behind the maintenance processes of infrastructures and high-tech equipment. In particular, we are looking at the best ways to dispatch service engineers and to assign repair priorities in multi-item, multi-channel environments.