AVAILABILITY BASED SPARE OPTIMIZATION USING RENEWAL PROCESS

In this article, we develop mathematical models for spare components w ith exponential, gamma, normal and Weibull time to failure distributio n using a renewal process. The models can be used to predict the numbe r of spares required for a component or system to achieve specified in herent availability. The paper also presents optimization models for s ystems with components in series where the time to failure distributio n of the components follow any general distribution. The objective of the optimization problem is to maximize the availability of the system satisfying constraints on cost and weight. The optimization model dev eloped in the paper can be solved using many general purpose software like LINDO, SOLVER of EXCEL etc. An efficient branch and bound procedu re which can be used to solve the optimization problem is also present ed in the article. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Limited.