Workforce training and operations planning for maintenance centres under demand uncertainty

Companies that provide repair & overhaul services to the users of complex technical systems are confronted with uncertain volume of demand when making tactical decisions such as workforce training and planning of repair operations over an annual planning horizon. Given the high importance of equipment availability (e.g. gas turbines) to the users (e.g, power plants), any delay in the delivery of repaired equipment caused by demand uncertainty would lead to significant penalties and loss of customer goodwill. In this paper, a two-stage stochastic programming model is proposed to obtain the optimal number of items to repair, spare part inventory, and the number of operators to train with the goal of minimising the total expected cost of maintenance operations and late delivery. Outsourcing and borrowing strategies are adopted as corrective measures to reduce the probability of late delivery in the emerge of demand uncertainty. Numerical findings illustrate the importance of integrating uncertainty into these operations planning decisions as well as the mitigation strategies in handling the cost of the system.