Optimal preventive maintenance policy for leased equipment using failure rate reduction

This study proposes a maintenance scheme for leased equipment using failure rate reduction method and derives an optimal preventive maintenance (PM) policy that minimizes expected total cost. Under the proposed maintenance scheme, failures are rectified by the lessor (equipment owner) with minimal repairs within the lease period, and the lessor may incur a penalty when repair time exceeds a time limit as specified in the lease contract. To reduce the expected total cost, the lessor may employ PM actions to decrease the number of possible failures. In this study, an efficient algorithm is developed to derive the optimal PM policy.