Disassembly sequence planning for maintenance based on metaheuristic method

PurposeMaintenance disassembly that involves separating failed components from an assembly or system plays a vital role in line maintenance of civil aircraft, and it is necessary to have an effective and optimal sequence planning in order to reduce time and cost in maintenance. The purpose of the paper is to develop a more effective disassembly sequence planning method for maintenance of large equipment including civil aircraft systems.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology involves the following steps: a component‐fastener graph is built to describe the equipment in terms of classifying components into two categories that are functional components and fasteners; interference matrix is developed to determine the removable component, and a disassembly sequence planning of functional components is proposed based on Dijkstra's algorithm; the disassembly sequence planning including fasteners is presented based on particle swarm optimization.FindingsAn application case, which takes the nose landing gear system of a regional jet as a study object, shows that the disassembly sequence planning method proposed in the paper can reduce the calculation complexity greatly, and its effectiveness is greater than that of a genetic algorithm‐based method, in most situations.Practical implicationsThe method proposed herein can acquire the optimal maintenance disassembly sequence, which can reduce the cost and time for maintenance of large equipment.Originality/valueA novel and effective disassembly sequence planning solution for maintenance of large equipment is presented, which can be applied to the line maintenance of civil aircraft.