An Optimal Inspection Policy for a Markovian Deteriorating Model with Repair and Replacement

摘要

This paper considers a system whose deterioration is described as a discrete-time Markov chain. States 0, ..., N are ordered to reflect the degree of deterioration, in ascending worse order. The system state is detected through inspection. Then only one of three decisions can be made: inspection, repair and replacement. Inspection means that one determines the next inspection time. Repair returns the system to state 0, but it is likely to move to worse states as the number of repairs increases. When replacement is carried out, the system is replaced by a new and identical one. We study on structural properties of an optimal inspection policy minimizing the expected total discounted cost.