Modelling and Simulation of Support Systems to Predict Operational Availability

Functional Products, consisting of hardware and service support systemsowned by the supplier, are sold to customers with a guaranteed availability ofthe function. The availability achieved is dependent on the reliability of bothhardware and the service support system. The reliability of the latter can bedefined as its ability to provide the required maintenance services in a timelymanner. This paper reports simulation of a service support system from anindustrial case study in order to predict its reliability. To identify and develop asuitable case together with an industrial partner company, a number of phonemeetings were held in order to explain the research question, interviewknowledgeable people and plan on-site visits and interviews. A number ofinterviews face to face were carried out with the industrial partners, where thegoal was to obtain enough information to be able to model the support systemcorrectly. The research involved both qualitative information gathering andapplied computer aided simulation. An improved model for simulating aservice support system is developed that considers the context in which themaintenance procedures are performed within a Functional Product. Asoftware implementation of the model, developed by the authors, is applied tosimulate the case study service support system in various scenarios such asdifferent personnel availability and number of systems supported. The resultsshow how the modeling can be used to improve and predict the reliability ofthe service support system.