Making use of prognostics health management information for aerospace spare components logistics network optimisation

Although research has evolved significantly over the last decade, there are still a large number of Grand Challenges confronting modelling, model deployment, and model-based decision making of large-scale complex Discrete Event Logistics Systems (DELS) to be tackled, as identified and reviewed during a Dagstuhl workshop in March 2010. This paper illustrates how several of these challenges are already being addressed, based on a series of case studies from the Aerospace Spare Components Logistics domain, where consolidated operational Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) information can be used for tactical planning and optimisation of spare components logistics networks. In this setting, the growing potential of PHM technology to facilitate the maintenance and support of commercial and military aircraft emphasises the need for tools to determine the impacts and benefits of a PHM system. To achieve this, the prognostics parameters and related logistics policies were identified, modelled, and subsequently incorporated into a simulation-based decision support framework.