A new modified discrete preventive maintenance policy and its application to hard disk management

Abstract

This study proposes a new modified discrete preventive maintenance policy where failures of a system can be detected only by inspections and be fixed by minimal repairs. The maximum number of minimal repairs allowed to the system is, however, a prespecified integer, N. Under the proposed policy, inspections are conducted at times T, 2T, ...(T>0) to detect and fix failures by minimal repairs, and the whole system is preventively replaced by a new one when the cumulative number of failures detected becomes equal to an integer, k or more. The expected cost per unit time is formulated under the proposed maintenance policy. The existence of an optimal integer k=k* which minimizes the expected cost is then shown. Numerical examples are also presented to illustrate the theoretical underpinnings of the proposed formulation.

Citation

Sandoh, H., Hirakoshi, H. and Nakagawa, T. (1998), "A new modified discrete preventive maintenance policy and its application to hard disk management", Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 284-290. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552519810234001