Optimal Age Replacement Time with Minimal Repair Based on Cumulative Repair-Cost Limit for a System Subjected to Shocks

• Activity Number: 679
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 5, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Quality and Productivity
• Author(s): Shey-Huei Sheu*+ and Chin-Chih Chang and Yu-Hung Chien
• Companies: Providence University and Providence University and National Taichung Institute of Technology
• Keywords: Maintenance ; Minimal repair ; Replacement policy ; Cumulative repair-cost limit ; Age-replacement

Abstract

A system is subject to shocks that arrive according to a NHPP. As these shocks occur, the system experiences one of two types of failures: a type-I failure (minor), rectified by a minimal repair; or a type-II failure (catastrophic) that calls for a replacement. In this article, we consider an age-replacement model with minimal repair based on a cumulative repair-cost limit, whose concept uses information about a system's entire repair-cost history. Under such a policy, the system is replaced preventively at age T, or at the k-th type-I failure at which the accumulated repair cost exceeds the pre-determined limit, or at the first type-II failure, whichever occurs first. The minimum-cost replacement policy is studied by showing its existence, uniqueness, and the structural properties. Our model is a generalization of several classical models in maintenance literature.