Tools in a manufacturing plant require regular maintenance over their lifespan (e.g. cleaning, calibration, safety checks) in order to keep them running smoothly. In capital intensive industries, such as semi-conductor manufacturing, the scheduling of maintenance operations on the tools used in production is a critical function. Maintenance operations can be expensive to perform, so we should only perform them when necessary. However if maintenance is delayed too long, tools may run sub-optimally or break down (thus requiring even more expensive unplanned, corrective maintenance). Furthermore a tool that is undergoing maintenance may be partly or wholly unavailable for (revenue generating) production operations.
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