MBSE-Driven Implementation to Optimize Aircraft Maintenance Planning

Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+) is a growing topic among the aviation community, and key to its implementation is the optimal scheduling of maintenance activities. We previously used Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to architect the CBM+ implementation of a commercial maintenance optimization tool for a notional military aircraft fleet. Challenges in optimally scheduling preventative, corrective, and predictive maintenance (PMx) activities using a letter-check maintenance strategy (e.g., A and C checks) motivated us to research the feasibility of a task-based, progressive maintenance strategy to support CBM+ implementation.In this paper, we discuss our approach in exploring a progressive maintenance strategy, opportunities and CBM+ capabilities that are facilitated by the novel approach, and how MBSE is driving the design and development our maintenance scheduling optimization tool. Special attention is paid to how MBSE identified the systemic issues in the letter-check maintenance strategy that may be solved using a progressive maintenance approach, communicating these conceptual and logical changes among our cross-functional team, and how MBSE unified our continuous agile methodology to revamp our scheduling tool. Future work includes the continued development and testing of the tool guided by MBSE and incorporating enterprise and operational constraints into the tool using MBSE.