Integrated Modelling of Statistical Process Control and Maintenance

Quality of products has been a major concern in various industries due to increasing competition. Maintenance of machines and production processes is a key factor in ensuring high quality of the products. In addition, control charts have long been utilized to monitor variation in the production process. In this thesis, we propose a Semi-Markov Decision Process (SMDP) model to integrate Statistical Process Control (SPC) and maintenance operations. The objective is to determine jointly optimal maintenance and process control policies that minimize the total long-run average costs comprised of maintenance and monitoring costs. We propose a policy iteration algorithm to find the optimal parameters. Finally, we illustrate the results and benefits of integrated SPC and maintenance using a numerical case study.M.A.S