Improving Maintenance Decision Making in the Finnish Air Force Through Simulation

Abstract

We used discrete-event simulation to model the maintenance of fighter aircraft and improve maintenance-related decision making within the Finnish Air Force. We implemented the simulation model as a stand-alone tool that maintenance designers could use independently. The model has helped the designers to study the impact of maintenance resources, policies, and operating conditions on aircraft availability. It has also enabled the Finnish Air Force to advance the operational capability of its aircraft fleet. We designed the model to simulate both normal and conflict operating conditions. The main challenge of the project was the scarcity and confidentiality of data about the fighter aircraft, their maintenance, and various operational scenarios, especially during conflict situations.

A model enhancement heuristic for building robust aircraft maintenance personnel rosters with stochastic constraints

“…This is a major distinction with the problem studied in (Yan et al, 2004), which is closely related to our work, except for the assumption of deterministic flight arrivals. Other papers that study aircraft maintenance scheduling assuming uncertainty in the timing of the workload include Duffuaa and Andijani (1999), Mattila, Virtanen, and Raivio (2008), Petersen, Solveling, Clarke, Johnson, and Shebalov (2012) and Muchiri (2009). The papers of Safaei et al (2010Safaei et al ( , 2011 assume deterministic flight arrivals, but stochastic workloads (and thus stochastic maintenance durations or repair times).…”

Influence diagrams in analysis of discrete event simulation data

“…In the first example, an ID is constructed to study a discrete event simulation model for the maintenance of a military aircraft fleet (Mattila, Virtanen, and Raivio 2008). The ID is used to describe the dependence between the number of personnel in a maintenance unit and the availability of aircraft.…”

“…In this example, the maintenance of military aircraft is studied using a discrete event simulation model (Mattila et al 2008). The simulation model is presented in detail in Mattila et al (2008).…”

“…The simulation model is presented in detail in Mattila et al (2008). The example is based on a simplified model with only one air command.…”

“…In addition to the estimates of the expected availability that have already been studied in Mattila et al (2008), the ID gives the probabilities of states P(x(t) = x) and the conditional probabilities of states P(x(t) = x|z) in an easily handleable and compact form. For example, if the number of available aircraft falls to four or less, i.e., x(t) ≤ 4, no more than two pairs of aircraft can be deployed to carry out missions.…”