Availability Analysis of a Two-Echelon Repair Model for Systems Comprising Multiple Items

Abstract

This paper considers a two-echelon repair model where several series systems comprising multiple items are operated in each base. We propose a basic model and two modified models. For two models, approximation methods are developed to derive the system availability. The difference between the basic model and the first modified model is whether the normal items in failed series systems are available as spare or not. The second modified model relaxes the assumptions of the first modified model to reflect more realistic situation. We perform numerical analysis for the models to compare their system availabilities and verify the accuracy of the approximation methods.