A reliability-based maintenance technicians’ workloads optimisation model with stochastic consideration

Abstract

The growing interest in technicians' workloads research is probably associated with the recent surge in competition. This was prompted by unprecedented technological development that triggers changes in customer tastes and preferences for industrial goods. In a quest for business improvement, this worldwide intense competition in industries has stimulated theories and practical frameworks that seek to optimise performance in workplaces. In line with this drive, the present paper proposes an optimisation model which considers technicians' reliability that complements factory information obtained. The information used emerged from technicians' productivity and earned-values using the concept of multi-objective modelling approach. Since technicians are expected to carry out routine and stochastic maintenance work, we consider these workloads as constraints. The influence of training, fatigue and experiential knowledge of technicians on workload management was considered. These workloads were combined with maintenance policy in optimising reliability, productivity and earned-values using the goal programming approach. Practical datasets were utilised in studying the applicability of the proposed model in practice. It was observed that our model was able to generate information that practicing maintenance engineers can apply in making more informed decisions on technicians' management.

An enhanced reliability-oriented workforce planning model for process industry using combined fuzzy goal programming and differential evolution approach

“…The work breaks new grounds in maintenance theory and practice from novel perspectives, drawing inspiration from the outstanding capabilities of fuzzy goal programming, differential evolution and the return-on-investment concept. This work draws extensively from the foundational research by Ighravwe et al (2016b). The concept of return-on-investment is arguably of several decades ago, and has been employed widely in hardware evaluation of maintenance resources.…”

“…In this communication, a hybrid approach where, in addition to the defined multi-objective problem in Ighravwe et al (2016b), a novel concept of return-on-investment is considered. The original work of Ighravwe et al (2016b) was strongly laid on the foundation of technicians' reliability wherein technicians' productivity as well as earned values was considered.…”

“…The original work of Ighravwe et al (2016b) was strongly laid on the foundation of technicians' reliability wherein technicians' productivity as well as earned values was considered. Motivated by the literature deficiency, limitations in maintenance literature as well as gaps in existing knowledge and practices in maintenance engineering, the proposed approach on returnon-workforce investment is an innovative addition to literature.…”

A multi-hierarchical framework for ranking maintenance sustainability strategies using PROMETHEE and fuzzy entropy methods

“…From this prospective a number of articles were found focusing largely on technical matters, which include inventory optimisation [47], workforce sizing [25], failure investigation [42], maintenance policy [50], modelling [32], warranty modelling [44]. Other studies have incorporated economy in the conventions of their models [26,51].…”

Flexible resource management and its effect on project cost and duration

“…Significant amount of research on allocating limited resources to competing tasks has been reported ( Vanhoucke 2013;Naber and Kolisch 2014;Xu and Feng 2014;Shahriari 2016;Hashemin and Fatemi Ghomi 2012;Garmsiri and Abassi 2012;Yaghoubi et al 2013;Dao et al 2017;Noori-Darvish and Tavakkoli-Moghaddam 2012;Shahriari et al 2016;Ighravwe et al 2016;Garmdare et al 2017). Bulk of this research falls under the general area of Operations Research.…”