Efficient aircraft spare parts inventory management under demand uncertainty

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIn airline industries, the aircraft maintenance cost takes up about 13% of the total operating cost. It can be reduced by a good planning. Spare parts inventories exist to serve the maintenance planning. Compared with commonly used reorder point system (ROP) and forecasting methods which only consider historical data, this paper presents two non-linear programming models which predict impending demands based on installed parts failure distribution. The optimal order time and order quantity can be found by minimizing total cost. The first basic mathematical model assumes shortage period starts from mean time to failure (MTTF). An iteration method and GAMS are used to solve this model. The second improved mathematical model takes into account accurate shortage time. Due to its complexity, only GAMS is applied in solution methodology. Both models can be proved effective in cost reduction through revised numerical examples and their results. Comparisons of the two models are also discussed.

Aircraft fault forecasting at maintenance service on the basis of historic data and aircraft parameters

“…Galar et al [12] propose a combined data mining-based methodology for condition-based maintenance considering condition monitoring data and historical maintenance management data. Gu, Zhang and Li present a non-linear programming model that forecasts demands, based on the aging of parts and the failure of installed parts [14]. Wang and Pham describe various models of maintaining and replacing component parts [42].…”

A New Model for Evaluating the Volume of Laptop Spare Parts Depending on Users’ Intentions Related to Laptop Use Time

“…Gu et al programmed two non-linear models forecasting demand according to installed parts failure distribution to solve inventory problems. The aim of their models was to reduce the cost of downtime due to shortages [23]. Do Rego and de Mesquita utilized three models for forecasting spare parts demand.…”

On the Optimization of Aircraft Maintenance Management

“…Secondly, the spare parts' demand uncertainty is modeled as a non-stationary stochastic process and the model reformulated as a multi-stage stochastic program with recourse. Gu et al (2015) propose two non-linear programming models to find the optimal order time and order quantity while minimizing cost. In the aforementioned papers, with the exception of Atasoy et al (2012), all mention the applicability of the methods to aircraft spare parts or are specifically motivated by this problem.…”