Stochastic modelling of a powerloom plant with common cause failure, human error and overloading effect

Abstract

Abstract The paper presents stochastic modelling of a powerloom plant consisting of two units A and B(n) connected in series. Unit B(n) has n components in parallel redundancy that carry threads of different varieties/colours to unit A. Unit A is strategic unit that weaves these threads together and produces a long piece of cloth of standard size. Failure of A makes the entire system fail, whereas failure of k-out-of-n components of B lets the system continue to work with overload on unit B and loss of quality of the product. The choice of k needs to be decided by the quality control. The whole system has been considered as a one plus k-out-of-n unit system, and its reliability analysis has been performed, with due consideration to common cause failure, human error and the overloading effect. Results of Dhilion (1992) have been deduced as particular cases of our result.