Priority Rule-based Planning Approaches for Regeneration Processes

Regeneration comprises the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of complex capital goods such as jet engines, wind turbines and stationary gas turbines. Service providers of such regeneration processes face many challenges, including the variability of regeneration paths due to the availability of different repair procedures. In addition, conditions for regeneration processes are defined by the high requirements for logistical performance, e.g., short delivery times and strong adherence to delivery dates set by customers. To meet these requirements, it is essential to efficiently plan regeneration processes. If constraints are not met, regeneration service providers risk heavy penalties and a loss of customers. In this paper, we present methods that, with the aid of priority rules, provide support in planning regeneration processes. These priority rules can be applied to different steps within the planning process: on a higher planning level, priority rules can be implemented to sequence orders and thus to optimize logistical performance. On a more detailed planning level, priority rules can be used to decide on the regeneration path and to schedule the particular regeneration steps. Both successive planning approaches take into account customer requirements as well as targets set by the service provider.