SurvCF(t): Counterfactual Explanations for Survival Analysis in Predictive Maintenance Multivariate Time Series Data

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2607.16969v1
• Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2026 21:06:46 GMT
• Title: SurvCF(t): Counterfactual Explanations for Survival Analysis in Predictive Maintenance Multivariate Time Series Data
• Abstract summary: We introduce textitSurvCF(t), the first framework for generating counterfactual explanations for survival models operating on time-series data.<n>textitSurvCF(t) identifies minimal, plausible, and temporally consistent changes to an asset's operational history that increase its predicted life time.<n>Our results show that textitSurvCF(t) bridges the gap between survival prediction and prescriptive maintenance, enabling explainable and decision-oriented AI for maintenance strategies.
• Score: 5.77414732529171
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Predictive maintenance relies on accurate Remaining Useful Life estimation, often formulated using survival analysis over multivariate time-series data. While modern deep survival models achieve strong predictive performance, their black-box nature limits their use in safety-critical settings where actionable insight is required. In this work, we introduce \textit{SurvCF(t)}, the first framework for generating counterfactual explanations for survival models operating on time-series data. \textit{SurvCF(t)} identifies minimal, plausible, and temporally consistent changes to an asset's operational history that increase its predicted life time, framing explanation as a constrained optimization problem combining validity, proximity, sparsity, and plausibility. We evaluate the method on multiple benchmarks, including C-MAPSS, N-CMAPSS, and a real-world case study of the Scania Component\_X dataset, demonstrating its ability to produce actionable and interpretable interventions. Our results show that \textit{SurvCF(t)} bridges the gap between survival prediction and prescriptive maintenance, enabling explainable and decision-oriented AI for maintenance strategies.

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