Development of joint maintenance and production strategies in a subcontracting environment

This article, inspired by an industrial problem, develops efficient maintenance and just-in-time production policies in a subcontracting environment according to two orientations. The first invokes subcontracting with the objective of satisfying a constant customer demand knowing that our production system, composed of a machine M1, cannot satisfy the totality of demand. Subcontracting is represented by a machine M2 which has a constant failure rate, while three maintenance policies for M1 are tested and evaluated. The second orientation takes the perspective of our production system as a supplier which is obliged to allocate part of its production capacity to subcontracting so as to satisfy a constant demand. We consider a production system made up of two machines, both of which produce a single type of product, are subject to breakdowns and can carry out subcontracting tasks. The objective of this part of the article is to prove the efficiency of the so-called integrated maintenance policy, which combines production and maintenance decisions in a subcontracting environment.