Production-driven opportunistic maintenance for batch production based on MAM-APB scheduling

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Abstract Nowadays, modern production patterns, such as batch production, have brought new challenges for multi-unit maintenance decision-making. The maintenance scheduling should not only consider individual machine deterioration, but also apply to batch production with variable lot size. An interactive bi-level maintenance strategy is thus proposed in a multi-unit batch production system with degrading machines. In the machine-level scheduling, a multi-attribute model (MAM) is used to obtain maintenance intervals according to individual machine degradation. In the system-level scheduling, a novel production-driven opportunistic maintenance strategy is developed by considering both machine degradation and characteristics of batch production. In this strategy, advance-postpone balancing (APB) utilizes setup times as opportunities to make real-time schedules for system-level maintenance. The numerical example shows that the proposed MAM-APB methodology can efficiently eliminate unnecessary production breaks, achieve significant cost reduction and overcome complexity of system scheduling.