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Multi-machine preventative maintenance scheduling with imperfect interventions: a restless bandit approach

Discrete Mathematics 2024-01-26 v1 Numerical Analysis Numerical Analysis

Abstract

In this paper we address the problem of allocating the efforts of a collection of repairmen to a number of deteriorating machines in order to reduce operation costs and to mitigate the cost (and likelihood) of unexpected failures. Notwithstanding these preventive maintenance interventions are aimed at returning the machine to a so-called as-good-as-new state, unforeseeable factors may imply that maintenance interventions are not perfect and the machine is only returned to an earlier (uncertain) state of wear. The problem is modelled as a restless bandit problem and an index policy for the sequential allocation of maintenance tasks is proposed. A series of numerical experiments shows the strong performance of the proposed policy. Moreover, the methodology is of interest in the general context of dynamic resource allocation and restless bandit problems, as well as being useful in the particular imperfect maintenance model described.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2401.14055,
  title  = {Multi-machine preventative maintenance scheduling with imperfect interventions: a restless bandit approach},
  author = {Diego Ruiz-Hernandez and Jesús María Pinar-Pérez and David Delgado-Gómez},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.14055},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Published in Computers and Operations Research (ELSEVIER), July 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2020.104927 Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:26:51.527Z