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Article
Publication date: 21 August 2007

Wen‐Jinn Chen

In today's industry, a machine breakdown is common for a machine running a long period of time without maintenance. To avoid a sudden breakdown, periodic maintenance is usually…

735

Abstract

Purpose

In today's industry, a machine breakdown is common for a machine running a long period of time without maintenance. To avoid a sudden breakdown, periodic maintenance is usually performed in the production system. This paper aims to find a set of efficient schedules that considers both jobs and maintenance simultaneously.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper addresses a real‐life scheduling problem in a plastic company. An algorithm based on the variable range technique is developed to solve the problem by providing a small set of efficient schedules.

Findings

Once maintenance is performed, the job being processed must be stopped. This will result in some jobs being late or tardy and a relatively larger flow time is generated. Therefore, how to minimize these two criteria in the production system becomes an important issue in the company. Computational results show that problems with larger maintenance intervals and smaller maintaining time can produce a smaller number of efficient schedules.

Practical implications

It is seen that scheduling maintenance will result in some jobs being tardy and a larger flow time is generated. A decision maker can easily select a preferred schedule from the small set of efficient schedules. The proposed algorithm is appropriate not only for the studied company but also for those companies where periodic maintenance is required.

Originality/value

Presents an algorithm to find a small set of efficient schedules.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 13 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 28 September 2010

Wen‐Jinn Chen

In practical environments, machines subject to maintenance are prevalent in many production systems. This paper aims to find a schedule that minimizes the completion time (or…

949

Abstract

Purpose

In practical environments, machines subject to maintenance are prevalent in many production systems. This paper aims to find a schedule that minimizes the completion time (or equivalently, the total setup time) subject to maintenance and due dates.

Design/methodology/approach

An efficient heuristic is presented to provide the near‐optimal solution for the problem. The performance of the heuristic is evaluated by comparing its solution with the optimal solution obtained from the integer linear programming model.

Findings

In many production systems, the sequence‐dependent setup time of a job cannot be ignored when a switch between two different jobs occurs. The paper studies the sequence‐dependent setup time problem with periodic maintenance, where several maintenances are required. Computational results show that problems with larger time interval and smaller maintaining time can produce a smaller completion time.

Practical implications

Here an efficient heuristic is developed to provide the near‐optimal schedule for the problem. The proposed integer linear programming model is also presented to provide the optimal schedule. However, the proposed heuristic and the integer linear programming model developed in the paper are appropriate for those companies where maintenance is performed periodically and the sequence‐dependent setup times of their jobs are required.

Originality/value

The paper presents the heuristic and the integer linear programming model to deal with sequencing and maintenance problems.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 16 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2005

Wen‐Jinn Chen and Ching‐Jong Liao

Machine maintenance is essential in many industries. How to schedule maintenance becomes especially important when achieving high shop performance is desired. This paper aims to…

805

Abstract

Purpose

Machine maintenance is essential in many industries. How to schedule maintenance becomes especially important when achieving high shop performance is desired. This paper aims to consider the maintenance scheduling problem in a company where different maintenance situations exist.

Design/methodology/approach

The company, which is famous in South East Asia, specializes in the manufacturing of textiles such as polypropylene and chemical chip. In this paper an algorithm is presented, for five specific situations, for the company to minimize the number of tardy jobs.

Findings

Owing to machine overload in 24‐hour production, machine breakdowns usually occur in the shop. There is an urgent need for the company to derive a procedure that will incorporate the maintenance into the schedule to reduce the machine breakdown. Computational results have showed that the proposed algorithm outperforms the current method with an average improvement of 32.5 percent, although the actual average improvement is somewhat lower partly because some jobs are unexpectedly cancelled or changed.

Practical implications

This proposed algorithm is appropriate not only for the studied company, but for those companies where maintenance has to be operated one or several times a month and the maintenance time is so significant that it cannot be ignored.

Originality/value

Provides an algorithm to aid in the maintenance scheduling problem.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

Keywords

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