OPTIMAL POLICIES FOR MACHINE REPAIRMEN PROBLEMS

n unreliable machines are maintained by m repairmen. Assuming exponent ially distributed up-time and repair time we find the optimal policy t o allocate the repairmen to the failed machines in order to stochastic ally minimize the time until all machines work. Considering only one r epairman, we find the optimal policy to maximize the expected total di scount time that machines work. We find the optimal policy for the cas es where the up-time and repair time are exponentially distributed or identically arbitrarily distributed up-times and increasing failure ra te distribution repair times. AMS 1991 SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION: PRIMARY 90 C40 SECONDARY 90 B25; 90 B30