Age-based maintenance policies with minimal repairs for single unit systems subject to competing failure modes due to degradation and shocks

Abstract : One considers a single-unit repairable system where the failures are due to the competing and dependent causes of degradation and traumatic shocks. The main aims of this work are to modeling and study the different approaches for making a minimal repair decision (i.e. condition-based or time-based) which is a possible corrective maintenance action under the occurrence of shocks. The mathematical cost models for two age-based maintenance policies with age-based minimal repairs and degradation-based minimal repairs are developed and compared with each other. The comparison results for the different situations of system characteristics and maintenance costs allow us to justify the appropriate approach of minimal repair.