Aircraft Component Spare Parts Logistics and Operation Planning: A Case Study in FARSCO Aircraft MRO Center

In this research, spare parts logistics in the aviation industry has been investigated. Since each aircraft consists of several components such as landing gear, engines, fuselages, propeller, wings, etc., the availability, ordering, and delivery of them are important during aircraft repair and maintenance operations and delays in supplying component spare parts will have a direct impact on the delivery of aircraft. This paper aims to optimize a supply of component spare parts using a programming model considering minimize the holding and purchasing costs. Due to the shortage of spare parts plays a key role in increasing the turnaround time of the aircraft, penalties for delay in delivery of the parts have been considered. Moreover, two critical constraints including the purchase budget and repair capacity which are rarely mentioned in the previous papers have been noted in this research. FARSCO aviation maintenance & overhaul center as the biggest dedicated Maintenance, repair and overhaul center in the Middle East has been considered in this paper as the case study. Based on its capabilities, FARSCO provides various services to all Iranian airlines and almost 90% of domestic airlines send their aircraft to this maintenance center for performing light and heavy checks and maintenance. The proposed model was verified and solved by using CPLEX solver and is constructed for the case by considering the numerical data. The results are obtained in two average demand and pessimistic modes (worst case scenario). Finally, a sensitivity analysis of the model is carried out to investigate the applicability of the problem. Results demonstrate the optimal number of maintenance jobs that can be completed to deliver at each period, as well as the order quantity of spare parts and the shortages of spare parts which are important for managers to deliver aircraft to the customers on time.