Optimal allocation of interchangeable components in a series-parallel system

This paper: extends the work of El-Neweihi, Proschan, Sethuraman (1986) to maximize the reliability of a series-parallel system through optimal allocation of inte rchangeable components; provides a practical procedure for the reliability optimization problem whi ch is shown to be NP complete. Based on an observation that the reliability of series-parallel system incr eases with the homogeneity among the cutset hazards, an approximate linear programming model is developed in which the objective is to minimize the me an deviation of the cut-set hazards. An algorithm is provided to improve fu rther the resulting allocation. The numerical investigation on this heurist ic approach and its application to a large problem have yielded encouraging results.