Joint Optimization of Inventory Control and Maintenance Policy

Inventory optimization attempts to find the distribution of inventory that best meets specified cost and availability goals. When equipment availability is considered, most reported work treats the impact of preventive maintenance (PM) and corrective maintenance (CM) on the production system as a given cost corresponding to the loss resulting from unmet demand. This paper treats the impact of PM and CM on the production system as variables that affect the cost of inventory control. Furthermore, despite the wealth of literature in the fields of inventory control optimization and maintenance strategy optimization, there are few reported studies of interaction between these two kinds of optimization problems. For this reason, the other main objective of this paper is to jointly analyze optimal production control and maintenance activities, in addition to inventory control optimization. A simulation model is developed to find the optimal number of major failures and the optimal level of safety stock. The results show that joint optimization of maintenance strategy and production control policy leads to a significant reduction in total system operating costs.