Reliability centered preventive maintenance optimization for aircraft indicators

Maintenance, as a support function in aircraft operations, plays an important role for sustained availability, safety, and operating readiness. This research aims to optimize the preventive maintenance interval by minimizing the expected long-term operating cost based on the aircraft indicators reliability information. Major failure modes of two indicator applications from two suppliers are identified using the information from failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) reports. Mean time to failure (MTTF) and mean time between unscheduled replacement (MTBUR) metrics are derived and used as inputs for the preventive maintenance interval optimization model. In addition to the optimized preventive maintenance interval, the reliability analysis outcomes provide insights about the failure root causes and failure mechanisms in terms of failure rates.