Accession Number:

ADA582480

Title:

Determining Optimal Machine Replacement Events with Periodic Inspection Intervals

Descriptive Note:

Master's thesis

Corporate Author:

AIR FORCE INST OF TECH WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB OH GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

Personal Author(s):

• Shiveley, Theodore C.

Report Date:

2013-03-01

Pagination or Media Count:

97.0

Abstract:

This research will examine the optimal maintenance and replacement policies for a generic machine with periodic inspection intervals. The considered reliability models consist of a single machine that can fail during operation or else may be found to be inoperative during regularly-scheduled maintenance inspections. A distinction will be made between spontaneously-occurring failures during operation and those that are discovered during inspections. Since the elapsed time between inspections is constant, the resulting stochastic reliability process becomes non-Markovian, and thus a Semi-Markov Decision Process SMDP framework must be employed in order to determine the cost-optimal stationary policy consisting of repair and replace decisions and inspection intervals. Using the methodology developed here, a system controller will be able to readily develop an inspection-based strategy to optimize the overall costs of maintaining systems with a variety of failure characteristics over a finite time horizon.

Descriptors:

• *INSPECTION
• *INTERVALS
• *MAINTENANCE
• *OPTIMIZATION
• *REPLACEMENT
• DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING
• MARKOV PROCESSES

Subject Categories:

• Operations Research
• Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering and Control of Production Systems
• Logistics, Military Facilities and Supplies

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE