Optimal preventive maintenance intervals of a rolling stock system

In this paper, we deal with a preventive maintenance (PM) scheduling problem for a rolling stock system. We want to determine the interval of PM for components in rolling stock system. The total expected cost for system life cycle and system availability are used as optimization criteria. We consider two types of PM (short-term and long-term PM). For given PM intervals, we estimate availability and life cycle cost by simulation (a commercial simulation program, AvSim). Numerical examples are also studied to investigate the effect of model parameters on the optimal solution.