STOCHASTIC MODELING OF A POWERLOOM PLANT WITH COMMON-CAUSE FAILURE, HUMAN ERROR AND OVERLOADING EFFECT

The paper stochastic modelling of a powerloom plant consisting of two units A and B(n) connected in series. Unit B(n) has n components in pa rallel redundancy that carry threads of different varieties/colours to unit A. Unit A is strategic unit that weaves these threads together a nd produces a long piece of cloth of standard size. failure of A makes the entire system fail,whereas failure of k-out-of-n components of B lets the system continue to work with overload on unit B and loss of q uality of the product. The choice of k needs to be decided by the qual ity control. The whole system has been considered as a one plus k-out- of-n unit system, and its reliability analysis has been performed, wit h due consideration to common cause failure, human error and the overl oading effect. Results of Dhillon (1992) have been deduced as particul ar cases of our result.