Revisiting discrete time age replacement policy for phase-type lifetime distributions

For a system (or unit) whose lifetime is measured by the number cycles, according to the discrete time age replacement policy, it is replaced preventively after n cycles or correctively at failure, whichever oc-curs first. In this paper, discrete time age replacement policy is revisited when the lifetime of the system is modeled by a discrete phase-type distribution. In particular, the necessary conditions for the unique and finite replacement cycle which minimizes the expected cost per unit of time are obtained. The nec-essary conditions are mainly based on the behavior of the hazard rate. The results are illustrated for some special discrete phase-type lifetime distributions. Computational results are also presented for the optimal replacement cycle under specific real life setups. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.