Abstract

This research aims at proposing a simulation-based modelling methodology to support the decision-making process related to the Spare Parts Supply Chain, which is a significant supporting system for maintenance operations in manufacturing systems. The proposed simulation-based modelling approach suits as a useful quantitative methodology to evaluate the performance of the Spare Parts Supply Chain along with its impact on the underlying Maintenance System. The joint modelling and performance evaluation of both the Spare Parts Supply Chain and the Maintenance System allows to support the assessment and selection of policies and strategies related to Spare Parts inventories (e.g. supplying processes, transport decisions and maintenance operations). This methodology may yield a better system costs balance between Spare Parts Supply Chain and Maintenance System, while ensuring desired system service levels. Finally, it worth to be mentioned that this proposed simulation-based approach is suitable to be embedded into a more general decision-making framework to support Spare Parts Supply Chain planning and control. (C) 2019, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.