Diehl, Ernst, "Proactive Maintenance and Reactive Repair", 1996
ua435
Each month a major telephone company receives 200, 000 calls from customers who have a problem with their telephone service. The company places a high emphasis on reducing the repair cost caused by high volume of complaints. Using a simulation model, the company wants to understand how more proactive maintenance can reduce the need for repair calls. The simulation model presented in this paper reveals that within a proactive maintenance we need to distinguish between at least 3 different policy levers: (1) Discover the problem before the customer notices it: (2) Do the repair with such a quality that you do not have to repair the problem twice.; (3) Make your physical plant more reliable. The stimulation model allows the company to allocate investments in each of the 3 areas and to test which investment mix fits the overall company objectives best.