Toward Decision-Oriented Prognostics: An Integrated Estimate-Optimize Framework for Predictive Maintenance
This work addresses uncertainty and model misspecification in predictive maintenance for industrial applications, offering a principled approach to improve decision quality, though it is incremental in integrating existing concepts.
The paper tackles the problem of prediction errors leading to suboptimal maintenance decisions in predictive maintenance by proposing an integrated estimate-optimize framework that jointly tunes predictive models to optimize maintenance outcomes, reducing average maintenance regret by up to 22% compared to traditional methods.
Recent research increasingly integrates machine learning (ML) into predictive maintenance (PdM) to reduce operational and maintenance costs in data-rich operational settings. However, uncertainty due to model misspecification continues to limit widespread industrial adoption. This paper proposes a PdM framework in which sensor-driven prognostics inform decision-making under economic trade-offs within a finite decision space. We investigate two key questions: (1) Does higher predictive accuracy necessarily lead to better maintenance decisions? (2) If not, how can the impact of prediction errors on downstream maintenance decisions be mitigated? We first demonstrate that in the traditional estimate-then-optimize (ETO) framework, errors in probabilistic prediction can result in inconsistent and suboptimal maintenance decisions. To address this, we propose an integrated estimate-optimize (IEO) framework that jointly tunes predictive models while directly optimizing for maintenance outcomes. We establish theoretical finite-sample guarantees on decision consistency under standard assumptions. Specifically, we develop a stochastic perturbation gradient descent algorithm suitable for small run-to-failure datasets. Empirical evaluations on a turbofan maintenance case study show that the IEO framework reduces average maintenance regret up to 22% compared to ETO. This study provides a principled approach to managing prediction errors in data-driven PdM. By aligning prognostic model training with maintenance objectives, the IEO framework improves robustness under model misspecification and improves decision quality. The improvement is particularly pronounced when the decision-making policy is misaligned with the decision-maker's target. These findings support more reliable maintenance planning in uncertain operational environments.