Universal Journal of Mechanical Engineering Vol. 4(5), pp. 113 - 117
DOI: 10.13189/ujme.2016.040502
Reprint (PDF) (243Kb)

Comparisons of Individual and Group Replacement Policies for a Two-machine Series System

Wen Liang Chang ^1,*, Mei Wei Wang ^2
1 General Education of Holistic Education Center, Cardinal Tien Junior College of Healthcare & Management, Taiwan
² Department of Industrial Management, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the comparisons of individual and group replacement policies for a two-machine series system. Suppose that manufacturer's production system which consists of two machines in series. For two machines, when any machine fails within the operating time, minimal repair is performed for machines by the manufacturer. Due to the inevitable deterioration of the machine, the machine may fail more frequently as its age or usage increases. Therefore, an appropriate preventive replacement (PR) of the machine may be suitable for reducing the number of failures and maintains the operation of the machine normally. When a PR action is performed, it incurs a replacement cost and a downtime cost. Hence, when the replacement cost is high, it might be worthwhile replacing both machines at the same time (called group replacement policy; GRP) instead of replacing them separately (called individual replacement policy; IRP). Under these maintenance policies, the maintenance cost rate models of individual and group replacement for a series system is derived and further, optimal preventive replacement time is obtained such that the expected total cost rate is minimized. Finally, some numerical examples are given to illustrate the influences of individual and group replacement policies to the expected total cost rate.

KEYWORDS
Individual Replacement, Group Replacement, Two-machine, Series System

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Wen Liang Chang , Mei Wei Wang , "Comparisons of Individual and Group Replacement Policies for a Two-machine Series System," Universal Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 113 - 117, 2016. DOI: 10.13189/ujme.2016.040502.

(b). APA Format:
Wen Liang Chang , Mei Wei Wang (2016). Comparisons of Individual and Group Replacement Policies for a Two-machine Series System. Universal Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 4(5), 113 - 117. DOI: 10.13189/ujme.2016.040502.