The effect of inflation on the total preventive maintenance cost of a scheduling model

Abstract

The concept of inflation in the engineering economics is not a new star, but new in its applied form to maintenance scheduling. While it has diverse applications in manufacturing such as inventory control and engineering design, the literature, concerning inflation on maintenance scheduling is conspicuously absent. Certainly, inflation is an important factor in models that deal with cost issues. In this work, an investigation into the effects of inflation on a maintenance scheduling model, originated by Charles-Owaba [6], is made. In particular, the Vogel Approximation Method (VAM) which is considered as the most suited method for the model is used for analysis. A deliberate attempt is made to analyze the differences in the cost behaviour between a normal situation and a situation where cost is inflated. With this, the original data proposed by the model originator is utilized to demonstrate these differences