A DECISION-SUPPORT TOOL FOR MACHINE REPLACEMENT PROBLEMS

The development and implementation of a decision support tool for machine replacement problems is presented. The implementation is written in Visual BasiC(TM) and runs under the Windows(TM) operating system. As such that implementation has easy access to appropriate data base, spreadsheet, and word processing packages. The implementation provides a simple system-user interface, requiring only the use of a ''mouse'' for input, program control and graphical display of output. The graphical displays allow the user to examine the effect of changes (and errors of estimation in) the problem parameters on the economic life and associated 'translated, and scaled, rent'' of a machine. Consideration of optimisation, sensitivity, what-if and goal-seeking analyses is implicit in the graphical displays. A numerical example is presented in order to illustrate the use of the implementation in supporting machine replacement decisions.