Optimal opportunistic maintenance model of multi-unit systems

Abstract

An opportunistic maintenance model is presented for a continuously deteriorating series system with economical dependence. The system consists of two kinds of units, which are respectively subjected to the deterioration failure described by Gamma process and the random failure described by Poisson process. A two-level opportunistic policy defined by three decision parameters is proposed to coordinate the different maintenance actions and minimize the long-run maintenance cost rate of the system. A computable expression of the average cost rate is established by using the renewal property of the stochastic process of the maintained system state. The optimal values of three decision parameters are derived by an iteration approach based on the characteristic of Gamma process. The behavior of the proposed policy is illustrated through a numerical experiment. Comparative study with the widely used corrective maintenance policy demonstrates the advantage of the proposed opportunistic maintenance method in significantly reducing the maintenance cost. Simultaneously, the applicable area of this opportunistic model is discussed by the sensitivity analysis of the set-up cost and random failure rate.