Simulation of maintenance process improvements

Fleet maintenance operations commonly face challenges related to operational inefficiencies, which compromise vehicle availability and, consequently, the continuity of the functions assigned to them. This article represents the second phase of a research project aimed at improving the corrective maintenance process of a vehicle fleet operated by the Government of Mexico, using a previously developed and validated discrete event simulation model. In this context, two alternative improvement scenarios are explored: the first involves a partial redistribution of work orders to a workshop with lower utilization levels, while the second proposes increasing the operational capacity of the critical workshop by adjusting service time distributions. System performance was evaluated using key indicators such as the Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), along with its standard deviation and variance, as well as the utilization rate of the workshops. The results indicated that both scenarios significantly improved overall system performance; however, the second scenario achieved the greatest reduction in repair times, although its implementation may represent a greater challenge. Furthermore, the study confirms that simulation can effectively support strategic decision-making in public fleet maintenance management, even without modifying the technical aspects of the repair process, by focusing exclusively on administrative and workflow-related improvements.