PRODUCTION LINE SIMULATION USING STOCHASTIC TIMED PETRI-NET FOR PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE SCHEDULING

As the complexity of manufacturing systems keeps increasing, the maintenance decision making grows more difficult as well. Therefore, the performance evaluation of different maintenance policies, or maintenance schedules, has to rely on simulations. In this paper, a modularized and flexible simulation package for manufacturing production systems has been developed using Stochastic Timed Petri-Nets (STPNs). By utilizing the basic functional modules, one can quickly build production lines with different configurations and maintenance policies. A maintenance decision support tool has also been developed in this paper, together with the simulation package, to provide maintenance decision support.