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Multi-level product support, Availability, System dynamics

Article  in  DEStech Transactions on Computer Science and Engineering · March 2018

DOI: 10.12783/dtcse/mmsta2017/19723

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2017 International Conference on Mathematics, Modelling and Simulation Technologies and Applications (MMSTA 2017)
ISBN: 978-1-60595-530-8

Product Support Strategy Based on Availability

Jian-hua YANG, Long GUO, Yang SONG and Xiao ZHANG
Donlinks School of Economics & Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China

Keywords: Multi-level product support, Availability, System dynamics.

Abstract. By using the principle of the system dynamics research, an availability model of product
maintenance spare parts support system and the dynamic mechanism of multi-level support process
was constructed. Dynamic analysis of control feedback relationship in multilevel maintenance
support system and the maintenance spare parts flow in the system is carried out. Satisfactory
strategies for improving the availability of products were explored by means of analysis of product
support parameters in spare parts supply and maintenance. Dynamic simulation was carried out in
multilevel support model of product cycle to verify the effectiveness of product support strategy.

Introduction
Product support directly affects the performance level of the system. As an important part of
product support, spare parts management (including spare parts financing, storage and supply, etc.) is
affected by factors such as the availability of the system, time, funds, maintenance levels,
maintenance strategies influences. Insufficient planning of spare parts will lead to the time waiting
for spare parts during the maintenance of defective equipment, the loss caused by the equipment
downtime maintenance and the impact on the execution of the tasks and the operation of the system.
In order to ensure the availability of products, we need to improve the spare parts supply planning to
ensure timely maintenance of spare parts, spare parts should not only maintain a certain amount of
reserves, but also to avoid excessive storage of spare parts caused by waste. Spare parts supply
planning affects equipment operation and support funding. Through resources cooperation at all
levels, spare parts supply and maintenance strategies are rationally planned under a multi-level
guarantee system to optimize the availability of products and meet the requirements of product
optimal performance and economic affordability.
Availability as an important parameter to evaluate the protection performance, its evaluation and
optimization by some scholar’s attention. Scholars mainly studied the availability models under
different system working conditions, such as the reliability of components, the structure of complex
systems, and the allocation of maintenance resources. The system availability, which consists of
multiple components in series and parallel, mainly focuses on the parallel connection of components
and the complex system of K/N structure. In 1997, Smith Ma. J studied the availability of 1 / N cold
standby redundancy system [1], The model of availability of the system under preventive maintenance
strategy and replacement based on the number of years is established, and the analysis shows that the
strategy can be used to appropriately increase the availability of the system. Maintenance strategy
under the multi-component system [2], the availability of computing model is established, and
compared with the situation of maintenance and preventive maintenance strategy under the
calculation results obtained after the adoption of preventive maintenance strategy to reduce the
availability of conclusions, the study also found that the use of The same system availability can be
achieved depending on the maintenance strategy and the preventive maintenance strategy. The
former costs less. In 2008, Houbao Xu studied the problem of repairable system steady state
availability in six states [3]. The system adopted preventive and repair strategies and preventive
maintenance strategies to calculate the optimal steady state availability of preventive maintenance
and Repair maintenance cycle parameters. In 2005, Zhang Tao proposed a model for assessing the
usability of an arbitrary structural system under arbitrary working initial conditions [4]. This model
can calculate the system availability of different spare parts planning. When the fault obeys Weibull

767
distribution, the probability of state transition can not be Solve directly. Dong Bo Chao studied the
availability planning model based on availability and spare parts based on Markov model [5] in 2011,
with availability as the optimization objective to ensure the maximum efficiency of the equipment
under the limited spare parts quantity. Yang Shu-ming in 2012 to establish availability calculation
model, combined with equipment health status of equipment health status test cycle optimization
research [6].
The research of multi-level spare parts supply support mode mainly focuses on the theory and
application of multi-level inventory management. The METRIC model proposed by Sherbrooke in
1968 is a classical inventory control model of repairable spare parts under multi-level maintenance
support system the model solves the spare parts inventory allocation model under steady-state
conditions [7]. The METRIC model still has room for improvement in terms of accuracy and scope of
application. Some scholars have put forward improved models on the basis of this. Muckstadt
proposed the Dyna-Metric model in 1973 [8].
This paper studies the problem of multi-level product sustainment. From the perspective of the
dynamic mechanism of the sustainment process and the optimization of product support strategies,
this paper establishes a model of availability under the three-level product sustainment system.
According to the actual situation, Maintenance and out-of-service factors, and to optimize the
availability of the product, followed by economic affordability, and trade-off studies on strategies for
spare parts preparation, supply and equipment maintenance.

Problem Analysis and Assumptions

Three levels of complex product system sustainment system is a common mode of support, including
the base level, relay level and base level. When the product fails, it is necessary to restore its function
as soon as possible through maintenance. First locate and disassemble the defective parts, send the
defective parts to the primary repair station for repair, and repair the successful parts to the warehouse
for use. Spare parts supply support system to spare parts demand for traction. Spare parts
maintenance needs arising from the field level to the same level warehouse issued a request to apply
for spare parts warehouse will be sent to the grassroots maintenance site needs, the base level of the
warehouse can not meet the demand, you need to apply to the upper warehouse spare parts supply.
Can not repair the fault will continue to send a superior maintenance site, base level is responsible for
spare parts procurement. Spare parts supply support system is multi-stage dynamic system.
The following key assumptions need to be made to establish this model:
(1) The maintenance organizations at all levels adopt the principle of first-come-first-served on the
faulty parts to be repaired regardless of the batch repair problem;(2) the failure between the various
products are independent of each other, product failure obeys steady Poisson distribution;(3) The
parts of the products under study are repairable spare parts, repaired and reused spare parts can be
repaired as new effects, the service life does not change;(4) multi-level spare parts support system at
each level has only one maintenance department;(5) The fault that can not be repaired at the current
level is sent to the upper maintenance department for repair, and all the faulty parts can be finally
repaired at the maintenance level at the base level.

Spare Parts Supply and Demand Modeling Based on System Dynamics

Spare Parts Supply and Demand Causal Relationship

Spare parts supply support system is a dynamic and complex system, the overall behavior of the
system presents the characteristics of demand-driven, spare parts demand in the system is the most
important. There are inherent relationships and causal relationships among different levels of
variables. The demand of spare parts and the stock of spare parts at the grass-roots level affect the
supply and demand of spare parts together. When the supply is less than the demand, the spare parts

768
supply and demand is negative and the inventory is reduced. Inventory, spare parts to increase
inventory by order and repair and other means of replenishment; when the supply is greater than the
demand, spare parts supply and demand is positive, at this time do not need to replenish inventory,
spare parts inventory down to a certain threshold before ordering, inventory Volume up. In the model,
the inventory of the basic level spare parts is affected by three factors: spare parts replenishment
amount, back-up spare parts replenishment amount and spare parts delivery amount. The spare parts
demand and use are controlled and influenced by many factors, which is a constantly changing Time
series, factors that affect the demand for spare parts, such as spare parts replacement and parts failure
or regular maintenance, product failure rate, product number, installed capacity and so on. Repairable
spare parts affect the inventory level of spare parts, repair capabilities at all levels, including repair
capabilities, assuming that beyond the maintenance capacity of the fault will be uploaded to the
higher level maintenance agencies, the corresponding level to complete repair parts will be deposited
into the appropriate level of warehouse as a new spare Such as new), repair and reuse the same as the
complementary strategy of spare parts are used as an increase of spare parts inventory.
Spare parts demand and inventory supply spare parts supply poor, the information passed in the
system, according to the poor supply of spare parts to the higher-level spare parts warehouse issued a
claim request, adjust the inventory; higher warehouse issued spare parts, replace the fault under the
unit-level protection unit maintenance, Repair successful parts stored in the base level warehouse
standby, repair failure will be sent to the maintenance of faulty parts, maintenance points at the base
level to receive the fault parts will be completely repaired, base-level warehouse by ordering
additional spare parts, inventory levels lead to changes in supply and demand of spare parts The
difference, through the spare parts adjustment to meet the demand. When the spare parts are
sufficient, the maintenance tasks can be completed in time to ensure the products are running.
However, the inventory is insufficient, the out-of-stock items cause maintenance, the availability of
the product recovery function is impaired, and the availability is impaired. Therefore, a sufficient
supply of spare parts is the basic condition for ensuring a high availability of the products, while
excessive inventory causes waste of funds and waste of storage space.
System Dynamics Model
Spare parts supply support model in multi-level maintenance mode needs to express spare parts order
quantity, spare parts inventory, spare parts demand and the dynamic relationship between repairs.
The variables that make up the product assurance system have a total of 9 level variables, 15 rate
variables, and a few auxiliary variables and constants. The system dynamics model can be established
(figure omitted).

769
Model Parameters Defined
Table 1. Parameter definition.
parameter name Parameter parameter name Parameter
representation representatio
n
Base level spare parts inventory OI Depot spare parts inventory DI
Base level spare parts to make up ONS Depot spare parts ordering rate dspor
Base level spare parts raise rate orsps Depot spare parts order quantity DNO
Base level spare parts to make up OSPSLC Depot spare parts ordering cycle DOCT
the cycle
Grassroots safety stock SI Depot spare parts storage rate dsper
Poor supply and demand of basic OSPDSD Depot spare parts delivery rate dspdr
level spare parts
Basement storage delay time T1 Spare parts repair rate sprr
Base level delivery delay time T2 Available spare parts quantity ANSP
Base level spare parts storage rate oir Relay-level repair spare parts quantity INSPR
Base level spare parts demand rate orspd The number of basic level repair spare DNSPR
parts
Base level spare parts demand ONDSPD Spare parts level maintenance OMNSP
Base level spare parts usage ospur Spare parts relay level maintenance IMNSP
Spare parts utilization SPUR Base level repair success factor ORSC
Mean time between failures MTBF Relay-level repair success factor ORSC
Grassroots level did not repair the INSPFO Grassroots level repairs available spare DNRSP
number of sent parts
The number of product failures NBD Base level maintenance repair rate dmsprr
Relay grade spare parts inventory II Relays spare parts complement INS
Base level maintenance regulate MRT Relay level is not repaired sent quantity DNSPFO
time
Relay grade storage rate ispdr Relay grade spare parts delivery rate ispdr

Spare Parts Ordering Module

Spare parts ordering is one of the ways to replenish spare parts inventory level. Spare parts ordering
rate is subject to the triple restriction of parts delivery rate, spare parts supply and demand balance
adjustment rate and safety stock. When the supply exceeds the demand, it does not need to be
executed Order tasks, the inventory level will drop out with the spare parts, when the supply is less
than the demand and meet the safety stock control threshold, the need to perform ordering task to
replenish inventory, ordering rate should be greater than the previous time interval delivery rate,
supply and demand balance will be ease.
The ordering relationship at the base level can be expressed as:
t
ONS (t  1)  ONS (t )   [orsps (t )  oir (t )]dt
0
(1)
oir (t )  ONS (t  T 1) (2)
0, OSPDSD(t )  0
orsps(t )  
ospocr (t )  OSPDSD(t ) / OSPSLC(t ), OSPDSD(t )  SI (3)
OSPDSD(t )  ONSPD(t )  OI (t )
(4)
t
OI (t  1)  OI (t )   [oir (t )  ospocr (t )]dt  ONRSP (t )
0
(5)

770
Spare Parts Requirements Module
The demand of spare parts is the traction to promote the flow of material and information in the
system. The demand of spare parts is affected by the demand for maintenance of the products. The
spare parts inventory is sufficient. The spare parts delivery rate is restricted by the spare parts demand
rate. When the stock is insufficient and the demand can not be met, The current level of spare parts
inventory, supply and demand can not meet the balance of spare parts by the superior sustainment
units to apply for spare parts to complete. Spare parts demand is also affected by the reliability of the
equipment itself, and some factors such as the average time between failures of the product, product
uptime and downtime and spare parts utilization ratio and other factors in a proportional relationship.
Take the grass-roots level as an example, the main requirements for the relationship between the
needs of the grass-roots level of spare parts are as follows:
OSPDSD(t )  ONSPD(t )  OI (t )
(6)

ONSPD(t  1)  OMSPD(t )   [orspd (t )  ospur (t )]dt

t

0
(7)
ospur (t )  ospocr (t )
(8)
SPUR (t )
orspd (t )  * NISP(t ) * equipment numbers
MTBF (t ) (9)
totaluptime(t )  total downtime(t )
MTBF (t ) 
number of breakdowns (t )
(10)
Repair Module
During the repair process, the faulty parts need to be repaired and the repaired parts can be reused as
new spare parts. This process is also a kind of reverse logistics. The limiting factors of the spare parts
inventory level change include spare parts ordering rate, With the number of spare parts, when the
number of defective parts repaired is increased, the spare parts inventory level increases accordingly.
The spare parts order quantity can be reduced under the condition of satisfying the demand. Repair
the amount of spare parts for spare parts supply and demand differences have a positive effect on the
regulation. The fault parts are first sent to the base level maintenance. According to the corresponding
node maintenance ability, the repair parts can be sent to the base level warehouse for backup and can
not be repaired, and the relay level repair can be repaired, the successful parts can be repaired and sent
to the relay level warehouse for backup and uncorrected transmission to the base level maintenance
node Repair, repair success to continue to send base-level warehouse spare parts scrapped in
accordance with the scrap ratio in the circuit is a wear-out process. The main expression of the
relationship between the maintenance module:
t
ONS (t  1)  ONS (t )   [orsps (t )  oir (t )]dt
0
(13)

ANSP(t  1)  ANSP(t )   [ sprr (t )  spfr (t )]dt

t

0
(14)
sprr (t )  ONSPR (t )  INSPR (t )  DNSPR(t )
(15)
ONSPR (t )  OMNSP(t ) * ORSC (t )
(16)
INSPR (t )  IMNSP(t )  INSPDFO(t ) * IRSC (t )
(17)

771
 DNSPR(t )  DNSPFO(t ) * dmsprr
(18)
t
INSPDFO(t  1)  INSPDFO(t )   [dumspr (t )  dmsprr(t )]dt
0
(19)
D N S P F O (t ) * D R S C
d m sp rr ( t )   D N S P F O (t ) * S P S R (t )
M RT
 IM S P R R ( t )  D M N S P ( t )
(20)

System Availability and Cost Model

System availability is an important indicator to measure the support and effectiveness of the mission
of the equipment system. The advantage of this system is that it comprehensively considers the
features of reliability, maintainability and sustainment of the product. The inherent availability and
reachability among multiple availability levels are used to quantitatively assess the extent to which
equipment is operational when needed. One of the most direct characterization of equipment integrity
is the use of availability. Availability is the percentage of equipment that can actually work over the
entire life cycle versus the total calendar working time, so the quantitative measure of the availability
of the research object is:

A0 
MTBF
(21)
MTBF  MTTR  MLDT
The equation is the average time between failures, and the product fault rate; for the average fault
repair time, and product troubleshooting cycles related to maintenance; for the average logistic delay
time, is waiting for spare parts, waiting for maintenance, waiting for the equipment needed to repair
equipment Average time.
Continuous work products exist in two working conditions, downtime maintenance status and
work status, product status will continue to shift between the two states, the work of the equipment
due to failure, the status of the work by the state into shutdown maintenance, overhauling Fault repair
equipment, but also can be restored to working condition.

1 0  t m ( t ) j
t

e ( (22)
t0 0
MLDT  t p [1  PB (m,  , t0 )]  t p [1  )dt ]
j 0 j!

Product support costs include spare parts costs, maintenance costs, technical support costs,
inventory management costs and logistics costs and other expenses, this article protects the cost of
considering spare parts costs and maintenance costs. Spare parts cost is the cost of spare parts to meet
the needs of the grass-roots level, including spare parts costs for the maintenance work at the base
level and base level, the expression is:
T
C1   O N SP D ( t ) * U C
t 1
1

T
N ISP * (1  R IP ) * N R T S * D R C T
  t 1 M TBF
* U C1
T
T T U P * N ISP * (1  R IPi ) * SP SR
  * U C1
t 1 M TBF (23)
The maintenance cost includes the cost of in-situ maintenance and out-of-site maintenance. This
model only considers the in-situ maintenance costs at all levels. The in-site maintenance costs include
the non-scheduled maintenance labor hourly labor and planned maintenance work time cost, which is
expressed as:
T
TTUP(t )
C2   *[ RIP * IMH  (1  RIP) * RMH ]* BLR
MTBF
t 1
(24)
T
TTUP(t ) * SMH * BLR

t 1 SMI

772
Case Study
Assuming the supply of spare parts for a product is analyzed, it is assumed that there are 36 units of
the same kind at the grassroots level. The product is composed of 8 different types of components.
The product performs a task in 50 weeks. Therefore, the simulation period is 50 units, The simulation
step is 1, the storage delay time and delivery delay time of the spare parts of the unit at the basic level
are 3 weeks and 2 weeks, and the ordering cycle is 4 weeks. The storage delay time and delivery time
of the spare parts of the relay protection unit are 2 weeks and 1 week, base station spare parts
warehousing delay and departure delay time of 1 week and 1.5 weeks, parts scrap rate of 0.19, the
base level repair success factor of 0.5, the relay level repair success factor of 0.2, the base level repair
success The coefficient is 0.3. Take any one of the simulation results, the number of spare parts
protection units at all levels as shown in Figure 1, the number of repair parts that can be reused by the
various levels of maintenance shown in Figure 2, the level of warehouse units at all levels of
protection as shown in Figure 3, parts failure rate such as Figure 4 shows.

Figure 1. The demand for spare parts at all levels. Figure 2. Repair the number of spare parts at all levels.

Figure 3. Spare parts inventory levels. Figure 4. Spare parts fault rate result.
Spare parts support process, base level and base level spare parts volume fluctuations showed a
rising trend, while the relay level is the first increase after the flat trend, the reason is that the needs of
the basic level of spare parts directly affected by product maintenance strategy, the base level is
responsible for making up The shortage of spare parts in front of the obvious changes in demand, the
relay-level warehouse to provide buffer effect, demand changes in most of the time is not obvious.
The number of components repaired and reused at all levels also fluctuates. Due to the constant
maintenance capability at all levels and the different numbers of faulty items received, the number of
repairs is different.
From the system availability calculation formula (21) shows that the system availability by the
average time between failures, the average repair time and the average logistics delay time of three
factors. The changes of MTBF and MTTR have nothing to do with the supply of spare parts and are
related to the reliability of spare parts and the formulation of maintenance strategies. MLDT is
closely related to the supply of spare parts and shortening the supply and delay time in the guarantee
process, which can be effectively reduced and increased System availability.
Therefore, you can consider adjusting the average repair time and the average logistics delay time
to improve system availability. Sustainment costs, including spare parts usage and maintenance costs,
are all linked to factors that affect availability, adjusting the safeguard strategy as follows:

773
 Strategy M0: Mean time to repair = 1.2 weeks, in-place repair failure ratio = 0.15, in situ repair
time = 100 hours, average logistics delay time = 1.5 weeks, spare parts repair rate = 0.5.
Strategy M1: Mean Time to Repair = 0.9 Weeks, Home Maintenance Failure Rate = 0.2, Home
Restoration Time = 90 Hours, Average Backlog Delay = 1.2 Weeks, Spare Parts Repair Rate = 0.8.
Strategy M2: Mean time to repair = 1.5 weeks, in-service repair failure rate = 0.18, in situ repair
time = 110 hours, average logistics delay time = 2.5 weeks, spare parts repair rate = 0.7.
Under this strategy, adjustments can affect the change of availability. Adopting preventive
maintenance strategy can reduce the average repair time of equipment. The efficiency of management
and logistics in spare parts storage can shorten the logistics delay time, of course, improve equipment
reliability in the beginning, the equipment R & D process needs to be controlled. The parameters such
as the proportion of the original repair failure in the repair cost will affect the change of the
maintenance cost. The most significant factor in the guarantee cost is the spare parts cost and the
maintenance cost. The repair rate of the spare parts in the system is increased and recycled increased
number of fixtures can buffer the supply and demand gap between spare parts and reduce the number
of spare parts ordered. However, increasing the resources for sustainment and reducing the guarantee
delay time can effectively increase the availability and at the same time increase the sustainment cost.
Through simulation, product multi-level protection M1 strategy, the highest level of system
availability, the highest value of 0.975077. Spare parts orders and spare parts inventory levels are also
the lowest, confirming the availability of spare parts can be effectively reduced at all levels. While
availability increases with escalating costs, the M1 strategy is an effective solution to increasing
system availability to a degree that is affordable.

Conclusion
In order to solve the supply guarantee planning of product multi-level support model spare parts
based on the availability, the system dynamics method is used to carry out the simulation analysis,
and the reasonable support plan is planned from the perspective of improving the product availability.
System dynamics model can determine the impact of different supply and demand strategies on
system availability, early warning of supply and demand issues and effective control of the system.
In the actual use of the product, the guarantee process will be more complicated. There are still
many unexpected factors that affect the demand of spare parts. How to solve the problem of including
the contingency guarantee and the performance degradation of parts is still to be further considered in
the follow-up study.

Acknowledgement
The research was partially supported by National natural science foundation No. 71231001.
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities project No. FRF-BD-16-006A.

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