Investigating Maintenance Performance : A Simulation Study

Maintenance can be performed in multiple procedures, and it is hard to justify investments in preventive work. It is a complex equation between the inherent complexity of maintenance and its tight dependencies with production, but also the aspect of direct cost and consequential costs from activities. A model is presented that quantify dynamics of maintenance performance in order to enable a systems analysis on the total of consequences from different strategies. Simulation offers experimenting and learning on how performance is generated. The model is based on parts of previous research on maintenance modelling, system dynamics, maintenance theory, and mapping of practical information flows in maintenance. Two experiments are presented that both take off from a reactive strategy of maintenance performance, and implement two different strategies for preventive maintenance. Using the model enriches the analysis on how the aspects of maintenance performance work together with different maintenance strategies