Two-Stage Inspection Model Based on a Three-Stage Failure Process

As the non-periodic inspections are common in practice,a two-stage inspection model based on a three-stage failure process is proposed. The two-stage inspection means that the system is inspected with the first inspection interval T;and the second inspection interval T;. Because of the three color schemes commonly used in industry,three stages are divided by the system lifetime:normal, minor defective and severe defective stages. Upon the failure of the system,replacement is carried out. Maintenance is done once identifying the severe defective stage. However,when the minor defective stage is identified by the second inspection interval T;,action of halving the subsequent inspection interval is adopted.Otherwise,no action is required. Our objective function is to optimize the inspection intervals so as to minimize the expected cost per unit time. Finally,a numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.