Optimising spare parts provision and inspection intervals for an aircraft fleet undergoing cannibalisation

This paper studies the problem of determining the optimal initial stock level of recoverable components and the aircraft preventive maintenance inspection interval for an aircraft fleet. Demand for spare components arises from both corrective and preventive maintenance tasks. An aircraft that experiences failures while performing a mission is maintained by replacing failed components with working spares. In order to reduce the amount of this unplanned, corrective maintenance that is performed, aircraft are usually inspected periodically and components found to be in poor condition replaced preventively. The supply of spares is critical to maintaining fleet operational requirements but determining the stock required while considering critical fleet operational requirements and budget limitations is a complex task. When spares are unavailable, inoperative aircraft must wait for failed components to be repaired. In such situations, cannibalisation may be performed, where working components are remove...