COST-ANALYSIS OF A ONE-UNIT REPAIRABLE SYSTEM SUBJECT TO ONLINE PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE AND OR REPAIR

This paper deals with the cost analysis of a one-unit repairable system subject to on-line preventive maintenance (PM) and/or repair. It is assumed that the server upon arrival immediately takes up the system for inspection and then the appropriate PM work (if the system is operating) or repair work (if the system has failed) is carried out. The system continues to operate while it is subjected to PM. It is assumed that the system can undergo failure while the server is carrying out inspection/PM action on it. All the random variables that arise in the study are assumed to be arbitrarily distributed. The explicit expression for the expected total cost incurred on the system in a specified time interval is obtained by considering the expected busy period of the server spent on inspection (associated with PM), on PM work, on inspection (associated with repair) and on repair work, carried out in a given interval of time, respectively. The analysis makes use of the regeneration point technique.