Optimal maintenance policy in a multistate deteriorating standby system

An optimal maintenance policy for a multistate deteriorating standby system is proposed in this study. Traditionally, a system could only presume two operational states: success or failure, and the maintenance policy is to determine the optimal number of standby components, subject to factors such as maintenance capability, cost of the standby items, etc., so as to minimize the operational cost. This study considers a more general production system in which progressive deterioration is incurred during the operating time, hence resulting in degrading performance. By modeling the system as a multistate deteriorating system, an optimal maintenance policy is obtained by determining the optimal number of standby components required in the system and the optimal state in which the replacement of deteriorating components shall be made. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.