Preventive maintenance optimization on the basis of operating data analysis

This article deals with a method of maintenance concept optimization that allows reduction of life cycle costs (LCC) of a vehicle on the basis of knowledge of operating reliability data. The authors present a theoretical model of optimization, describing the basic relationships between the LCC of the main vehicle's sub-systems and the frequency of their scheduled (preventive) repairs. This article describes in detail an applied mathematical model and it also analyses the possibilities and conditions of its practical use for optimization of the concept of vehicle maintenance. Practical application of the proposed method is demonstrated on an example of optimization of the period of replacement of the vehicle drive train subsystem that is performed as a part of its preventive maintenance. The presented method indicates that data from observation of vehicle operational reliability can be employed successfully for optimization of conditions of their maintenance. By means of the proposed model, it is relatively easy to find reserves in concept of vehicle maintenance and to attain significant savings in the vehicle LCC by using a simple measure administrative change of maintenance periods.