Maintenance scheduling in reconfigurable manufacturing systems: A literature review and a dynamic grouping-based framework

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) have gained prominence due to their ability to adapt to changing market demands and product varieties. However, maintenance planning in such systems remains challenging because of their dynamic structures, modularity, and evolving operational conditions. This paper presents a systematic literature review on maintenance scheduling in RMSs, exploring key reconfigurability characteristics and their impact on maintenance operations, with the aim of synthesizing existing research and identify key modeling and decision-making challenges. Based on these insights, a dynamic grouping–based maintenance framework is proposed, explicitly tailored to address the challenges inherent in RMS environments. The framework links RMS core characteristics (modularity, scalability, customization, and convertibility) to a dynamic grouping maintenance strategy. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated through representative scenarios reflecting dynamic demand, capacity variation, and reconfiguration-driven maintenance opportunities. Results show that this dynamic grouping-based framework not only reduces maintenance cost while preserving system responsiveness, but also functions as an adaptive maintenance policy capable of continuously adjusting maintenance decisions to structural changes and operational variability in RMS environments.