Periodic replacement when minimal repair costs vary with time. (English) Zbl 0538.90026

Boland, Philip J.

Nav. Res. Logist. Q. 29, 541-546 (1982).

Summary: A policy of periodic replacement with minimal repair at failure is considered for a complex system. Under such a policy the system is replaced at multiples of some period T while minimal repair is performed at any intervening system failures. The cost of a minimal repair to the system is assumed to be a nondecreasing function of its age. A simple expression is derived for the expected minimal repair cost in an interval in terms of the cost function and the failure rate of the system. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an optimal replacement interval are exhibited in the case where the system life distribution is strictly increasing failure rate.

MSC:

90B25	Reliability, availability, maintenance, inspection in operations research
62N05	Reliability and life testing

Keywords:

necessary and sufficent existence conditions; periodic replacement; minimal repair; complex system; optimal replacement interval

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