Optimal discrete and continuous maintenance policy for a complex unreliable machine

Abstract

The failures of a complex unreliable machine depends on the age and the maintenance action history. Failures can be reduced (in a probabilistic sense) through effective maintenance actions. These maintenance actions can occur either at discrete time instants or continuously over time. Murthy (1984) dealt with a model that incorporates both these types of maintenance action and derived optimal maintenance policies using stochastic point process formulation and optimal control theory. This paper deals with a more general model. We give a complete characterization of the general model and derive some analytical results for two special cases.