Condition based maintenance optimization for multi-component systems using proportional hazards model

• Published in: Reliability engineering & system safety Vol. 96; no. 5; pp. 581 - 589
• Main Authors: Tian, Zhigang, Liao, Haitao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Condition based maintenance; Condition monitoring; Cost engineering; Economic dependency; Economics; Exact sciences and technology; Hazards; Linear inference, regression; Maintenance; Mathematical models; Mathematics; Multi-component systems; Operational research and scientific management; Operational research. Management science; Optimization; Policies; Probability and statistics; Proportional hazards model; Reliability theory. Replacement problems; Sciences and techniques of general use; Statistics; Condition based maintenance; Multi-component systems; Economic dependency; Proportional hazards model; Fixed cost; Replacement problem; Optimal policy; Maintenance cost; Software component; Maintenance; Economic sciences; Preventive maintenance; Optimization; Cox model; Surveillance; Cost estimation; Monitoring; Economic system
• ISSN: 0951-8320; 1879-0836
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2010.12.023

The objective of condition based maintenance (CBM) is typically to determine an optimal maintenance policy to minimize the overall maintenance cost based on condition monitoring information. The existing work reported in the literature only focuses on determining the optimal CBM policy for a single unit. In this paper, we investigate CBM of multi-component systems, where economic dependency exists among different components subject to condition monitoring. The fixed preventive replacement cost, such as sending a maintenance team to the site, is incurred once a preventive replacement is performed on one component. As a result, it would be more economical to preventively replace multiple components at the same time. In this work, we propose a multi-component system CBM policy based on proportional hazards model (PHM). The cost evaluation of such a CBM policy becomes much more complex when we extend the PHM based CBM policy from a single unit to a multi-component system. A numerical algorithm is developed in this paper for the exact cost evaluation of the PHM based multi-component CBM policy. Examples using real-world condition monitoring data are provided to demonstrate the proposed methods.