Flexible Inspection Approach for Maintenance Planning in Multi-Component Systems With Dependencies and Service Logistics

Maintenance planning is a complex task, influenced by the interdependence of components and the critical role of service logistics in sustaining operational continuity. Traditional approaches often treat components independently or consider only limited dependency types, leading to suboptimal decisions and increased costs. This paper presents a simulation-based optimization framework for condition-based maintenance that integrates multi-component systems while accounting for stochastic, structural, economic, and resource dependencies. The proposed methodology unifies periodic and non-periodic inspection strategies within the model, supported by a mathematical formulation that enhances flexibility in identifying cost-effective maintenance and inspection policies. Service logistics is explicitly incorporated by triggering spare-parts replenishment based on degradation thresholds rather than fixed time intervals, ensuring timely availability, minimizing component holding costs, and reducing downtime risk due to stockouts. Comparative analysis with existing approaches in the literature demonstrates significant improvements in both cost efficiency and system availability. Simulation experiments further confirm the superiority of non-periodic inspection strategies over conventional periodic policies across most operational scenarios, with periodic inspections remaining preferable only under specific conditions.