A model of optimal transport maintenance with demand responsiveness

Maintenance activities can be performed throughout the lifetime of a particular facility or piece of equipment, thereby affecting its quality in a continuous fashion. It is assumed in this paper that quality of a facility is determined by natural factors, rate of use and maintenance investments while demand for the facility is assumed to be a function of its quality. A dynamic optimization model in the form of a simple linear optimal control problem is then developed in order to determine optimal maintenance policies under these circumstances. Bang-bang and singular policies are derived and given economic interpretations. An algorithm is presented for numerical solution of the Pontryagin necessary conditions. Finally, sufficiency conditions are obtained for the model structure considered.