Contribution of Maintenance to Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems: State of the Art and Challenges

In the modern industrial landscape, reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) have emerged as a crucial element due to their rapid responsiveness and cost effectiveness to market fluctuations. This importance is demonstrated in the current industrial environment and shows significant potential in the coming era of manufacturing. Maintenance plays an important role in modern industry paradigms to ensure systems are reliable and operate efficiently. However, the integration of maintenance scheduling processes in RMS has not been significantly explored, opening new research directions. This literature review addresses this gap by systematically examining the existing works into two databases of peer-reviewed literature: Scopus and Web of Science. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the art of maintenance methods in RMS, highlighting the need for further investigation. The selected articles were analyzed and synthesized to provide insights into different maintenance strategies related to RMS under two criteria: Maintenance modeling, maintenance policy and optimization. This study also highlights the need to develop enhanced maintenance policies and methods specifically designed for RMS and describes the research challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. In doing so, it seeks to advance future research efforts and serve as a valuable resource for both researchers and practitioners in the field, paving the way for innovation and advances in RMS maintenance. Copyright (c) 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)