An approximate dynamic programming approach for solving aircraft fleet engine maintenance problem: Methodology and a case study

We consider a long-term engine maintenance planning problem for an aircraft fleet. The objective is to guarantee sufficient on-wing engines to reach service levels while effectively organizing shop visits for engines. However, complexity arises from intricate maintenance policies and uncertainty in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of operational research Vol. 321; no. 3; pp. 958 - 973
Main Authors: Zhang, Miao, Yang, Jingyuan, Zhang, Chuwen, He, Simai, Liu, Huikang, Wang, Jinshen, Wang, Zizhuo
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier B.V 16.03.2025
Subjects:
Approximate dynamic programming
Engine maintenance
Fleet management
Multi-stage stochastic integer programming
OR in airlines
OR in airlines
Approximate dynamic programming
Fleet management
Engine maintenance
Multi-stage stochastic integer programming
ISSN:0377-2217
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We consider a long-term engine maintenance planning problem for an aircraft fleet. The objective is to guarantee sufficient on-wing engines to reach service levels while effectively organizing shop visits for engines. However, complexity arises from intricate maintenance policies and uncertainty in engine deterioration. To address this problem, we propose a graph-based approach representing high-dimensional engine statuses and transitions. We then formulate the problem as a multi-stage stochastic integer program with endogenous uncertainty. We develop an approximate dynamic programming algorithm enhanced by dynamic graph generation and policy-sifting techniques so as to reduce the computational overhead in large problems. We demonstrate the efficacy of our method, compared with other popular methods, in terms of running time and solution quality. In the case study, we present an implementation in a real-world decision system in China Southern Airlines, in which the proposed method works seamlessly with other supporting modules and significantly improves the efficiency of engine maintenance management. •We study an aircraft fleet engine maintenance management problem.•We develop a graph-based approach to capture dynamics between engine statuses.•We propose an approximate dynamic programming algorithm to solve this problem.•We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method via numerical experiments.•We implement our methods with China Southern Airlines with success.
ISSN:0377-2217
DOI:10.1016/j.ejor.2024.10.008