On the Application of Quasi-renewal Theory in Optimization of

Imperfect Maintenance Policies

Sang-chin Yang, Ph.D., Chung-Cheng Institute of Technology
Te-wei Lin, Chung-Cheng Institute of Technology
Key Words: age preventive maintenance, block preventive maintenance, imperfect maintenance, quasi-renewal process
SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS
This research applies quasi-renewal process to develop
imperfect preventive maintenance models for aging systems.
Due to the system failure and maintenance, the aging systems
deteriorate during their life cycle and lead to decrease of
operation time and increase of maintenance time. Thus,
after failure and/or maintenance, the system operating time,
maintenance time, maintenance cost, and environmental
factors will deteriorate. Using statistical analysis, the
deteriorating parameters can be derived to facilitate the
construction of more accurate availability and maintenance
cost models. Based on the statistical analysis of failure and
maintenance data, the failure distribution and availability
models of aging systems can be constructed. Considering the
block and age preventive maintenance policies,
separately, the maintenance cost models are developed to
minimize the maintenance cost rate. Using the numerical
analysis, the optimal block or age preventive maintenance
period can be solved. Finally, the optimal preventive
maintenance policy can be obtained via the synthesis and
analysis of different maintenance policies subject to the
constraint of availability requirements. The results of this
research can be applied to different equipment in the
operational phase of the total life cycle. Collecting the field
failure and maintenance data, the methods and procedures
developed in this research can be applied to different
equipment to analyze the preventive maintenance period for
different policies to obtain the optimal preventive maintenance
policy.
1. INTRODUCTION
Traditionally the maintenance concepts assume that a
system after repair will be restored to either an as-good-asnew or as-bad-as-it-was condition. However, most
deteriorating systems after maintenance will be restored to a
condition between as-good-as-new (perfect repair) and asbad-as-it-was (minimal repair). That is, after repair a
deteriorating system will be restored and/or retained to a
condition which is better than it before failure or maintenance,
but worse than the brand new one. This type of maintenance
model is called the imperfect maintenance. Wang and Pham
(Ref. 1,2) proposed the Quasi-Renewal Process to model the
behavior of system under imperfect maintenance that after

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repair the operating time, maintenance time, maintenance cost,

and environmental factors will be deteriorating. The purpose
of this paper is to develop an optimization model for imperfect
preventive maintenance (PM) policy. Two of the most
commonly used preventive maintenance policies, Agedependent and Block Preventive Maintenance (APM and
BPM), are discussed and applied the quasi-renewal process to
develop the failure distribution and availability models. Then a
framework for evaluation of imperfect PM policies will be
constructed.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Maintenance Policies
Wang (Ref. 3) provided a thorough survey and review of
the maintenance policies of deteriorating systems. He
classified the maintenance policies for single-unit systems into
six categories, Age-dependent PM (APM) policy, Block
PM (BPM) policy, Failure Limit policy, Sequential PM
policy, Repair Limit policy, and Repair Number Counting
and Reference Time policy. In this research, we focus on the
APM and BPM policies and make brief review as follows.
(1) Age-dependent PM Policy
Barlow and Hunter (Ref. 4) studied age-replacement PM,
the most common and popular maintenance policy. Under this
policy, a unit is always replaced at its age T or failure,
whichever occurs first, where T is a constant. Following the
work of Barlow and Hunter (Ref. 4), Nakagawa (Ref. 5)
extended the age replacement policy that a unit is replaced at
time T or at number N of failures, whichever occurs first, and
with minimal repair at failure between replacements. Based on
the age-replacement PM, its extensions, and the concepts of
the imperfect maintenance (Pham and Wang) (Ref. 6), the
age-dependent PM policy was established. Under this type of
policy, a unit is preventively maintained at some
predetermined age T, or repaired at failure, until a perfect
maintenance, preventive or corrective, is received.
(2) Block PM Policy (or Periodic PM Policy)
Barlow and Hunter (Ref. 4) first proposed the concepts of
Block PM that a unit is replaced at predetermined fixed time

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intervals kT (k = 1, 2, ) and at its failures. Block PM is

independent of the units failure history. As the concepts of
imperfect maintenance became more and more established,
Block PM is extended and modified to the Periodic PM
policies with lots of variations. Nakagawa (Ref. 7) have
extended the block replacement policy by replacing a unit at
times kT (k = 1, 2, ) independent of the age of the unit and
keeping a failed unit until the next planned replacement.

by Wang and Pham (Ref. 1, 2) and Rehmert (Ref. 8) to solve

the preventive maintenance optimization problem for a
deteriorating system. The formulation of spare provisioning
can be found in the paper of Yang and Kuo (Ref. 9).

2.2 Imperfect Maintenance

Let {N (t ), t 0} be a counting process and let X n be the

operating time between the (n 1)st and nth event of the
process for n 1 . Observe a sequence of non-negative r.v.s
{X 1 , X 2 , X 3 ,...}. If X1 = Z1 , X 2 = uZ 2 , X 3 = u 2 Z 3 , ,

The study of imperfect maintenance models indicates that

they are most consistent with realistic maintenance situations.
Imperfect maintenance models include perfect and minimal
maintenance as two extreme cases. Pham and Wang (Ref. 6)
provided a thorough survey and review of the imperfect
maintenance models. In this research, we focus on the quasirenewal models in the application of the imperfect
maintenance.
Renewal theory provides a fundamental tool for
constructing simple maintenance models. The simplicity
comes from the i.i.d. assumption of the time between
successive events. Thus, after maintenance, the equipment is
assumed to be as-good-as-new. However, in practice, after
maintenance the lifetime of equipment will usually become
shorter while requiring longer repair times for its next
maintenance. Wang and Pham (Ref. 1, 2) defined a nonhomogenous process, called quasi-renewal process, where the
i.i.d. assumption is reduced to assume only that the successive
inter-arrival times are independent. A quasi-renewal process
models a system deteriorating or improving behavior by a
parameter taking values from the interval [0, 1) or (1,),
respectively. The quasi-renewal model is also called the (, )
model that after each maintenance the operating time will be
reduced to a fraction ( > 1) and the next repair time will
be increased to a multiple ( > 1) of the immediate
preceding operating and repair time, respectively. After the
nth quasi-renewal, the pdf of the operating time of a system
will remain in the same category as its original initial
operating time. Rehmert (Ref. 8) continued to construct quasirenewal models and derived the numerical results for the
corresponding point availability function.
2.3 Maintenance Optimization Models
The purpose of maintenance is to improve the availability
and operational readiness, reduce the failure rate, and shorten
the maintenance down time of a system. However, the more
maintenance tasks, the more cost of maintenance and supply
support will be accumulated that will lead to the increase of
total life-cycle cost. Therefore, the optimal maintenance policy
of a system must consider the maintenance cost and the
system availability simultaneously.
For a deteriorating system with imperfect maintenance,
their model seems to be unrealistic and inaccurate in
maintenance optimization as well as spares provisioning. This
can be tackled and solved by incorporated with the quasirenewal process in the problem formulation. Following the
idea, this research applied the quasi-renewal theory proposed

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3. QUASI-RENEWAL THEORY
3.1 Quasi-Renewal Process

where the Z i are i.i.d. and u > 0 is a constant, then the

counting process {N (t ), t 0} is said to be a quasi-renewal

process with parameter u and the first inter-arrival time X 1 .
(Ref. 1, 2) For a quasi-renewal process, the Cdf and pdf of the
subsequent operating times can be expressed, respectively, by
the Cdf and pdf of the first operating time as:

FX n (t ) = FX 1 u ( n 1)t

and

f X n (t ) =

f X 1 u ( n 1)t
u

n 1

).

(1)

3.2 Quasi-Renewal Function

n

Let = X be the sum of the first n operating times

n
i
i =1

of the system. The quasi-renewal function Q(t), or

equivalently the expected number of quasi-renewal E[N(t)],
can be expressed in terms of the n-fold convolution of F (t )
as follows:
Q(t ) = E[N(t )] =

n(F(n) (t ) F(n+1) (t )) =
n =1

F (t )
( n)

(2)

n =1

where F( n ) (t ) is the n-fold convolution of F (t ) . For the

mathematical tractability, it is useful to take F( n ) (t ) into the

Laplace transformation to derive the following:
F( n )* (s ) =

1 *
1 ( n )*
*
*
n 1
f (s ) = f X (s ) f X (us )... f X (u s ) .
s
s
1

(3)

Taking Laplace transforms for both sides of eq (2) and

substituting eq (3) into eq (2), then the quasi-renewal function
of a deteriorating system can be expressed as:

1 *
*
*
*
*
Q* (s) = L F(n) (t ) = f X1 (s ) + f X1 (s ) f X 2 (s ) f X 3 (s )... f X n (s ) (4)
n 1=1

n =1
s

Taking Laplace transform for eq (2), thus

f X*n (s) = f X*1 un1s = f X*1 un2us = f X*2 un3us = " = f X* j 1 (us) (5)

Substituting eq (5) into eq (4) to derive

Q * ( s) =

1 *
f X (s ) + f X* (s )q * (us )
s
1

] = FX* (s ) + sFX* (s )Q* (us)

1

(6)

Eq (6) can be solved to yield the follows:

411

f X*1 (s) =

Q ( s)
sQ* (s) , or equivalently *
FX1 (s) =
*
1
+
sQ* (us)
1 + sQ (us)

(7)

4. MODEL DEVELOPMENT

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4.1 Availability Modeling

Based on the results of the availability models proposed
by Rehmert (Ref. 8), we constructed the point availability
models for exponential, normal, and Gamma distributions. Let
random variables X j and Y j denote the jth operating time and
maintenance times, respectively, for j = 1, 2, , n. X j are

i.i.d. with CDF, F () . Y j are i.i.d. with CDF, G () . Let

Z j = X j + Y j , j = 1, 2, , n, with CDF, H () . It can be shown

that H () is the convolution of F () and G () . The system
point availability is:

A(t ) = F (t ) +

F (t x )dM (x )
t

(8)

Assume that M H (x ) is continuous and differentiable with

derivative mH (x ) then eq (8) can be expressed as:

A(t ) = F (t ) + F (t x )mH (x )dx

t

If a systems failure behavior follows the quasi-renewal

process, then its point availability can be expressed as:
1

F (t u )h (u )du
n =1

X n +1

(10)

d
H (u ) .
du
Taking Laplace transform on both sides of eq (10), we derive

(11)
A * (s ) = (1 f X* (s )) + (1 f X* (s ))h * (s )
s
n =1
,

where h (u ) =
j

*
n

where h

(s ) =

*
n

n +1

(s )g (s ) .
*
n

4.2 Maintenance Cost Rate Modeling

C (t p ) =

Total expected replacemen t cost per cycle

Expected cycle length

expressed as:

Total expected cost in interval ( 0, t p ]

Expected length of the interval
C p + C f N (t p )
tp

(13)
(14)

where CP = the cost to perform one preventive replacement;

(16)

The numerator of eq (16) is the cost of preventive

replacement probability the system survies to the planned
replacement age + cost of failure replacement probability of
equipment failure before t P :

C p R (t p ) + C f 1 R (t p )

(17)

The denominator of eq (16) is length of a preventive cycle

probability of a preventive cycle + expected length of a failure
cycle probability of a failure cycle:
t p R(t p ) + tf (t )dt
tp

(18)

Thus, the expected maintenance cost per unit time is:

C R (t ) + C f [1 R (t p )]
C (t p ) = p P
t
t p R (t p ) + tf (t )dt
p

(19)

For imperfect maintenance, we consider the deteriorating

factors to modify the expected maintenance cost per unit time
C R (T ) + C f [1 R (T )]
in eq (19) and obtain C (T ) = p
(20)
T
T R (T ) + tf (t )dt
where f (t ) = L

Elsayed (Ref. 10) discussed a constant interval

replacement policy. Under this policy, only two types of
maintenance actions are performed. One is the preventive
replacement occurring at fixed intervals of times. The other is
the failure replacement occurring upon failure. The total
expected replacement cost per unit time, C (t p ) , can be

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Elsayed (Ref. 10) discussed age-dependent PM policy and

proposed its maintenance cost rate model. Under this policy, a
system will be preventively replaced at age t P ; or replaced
when it failed before the planned replacement age. The
expected maintenance cost per unit time is:

(1) Periodic PM policy

Thus, C (t p ) =

(2) Age-dependent PM Policy

Assume that both operational and repair times are

exponential distributed. At time t, the Lapalce transform of
system point availability is:
n

1
1 (u ) n
(12)
A* (s ) =
+
n
i 1
i 1
+ s n =1 + u s i =1 ( + u s )( + s )

C (t p ) =

deteriorating factors to modify the expected maintenance cost

per unit time in eq (14) and obtain:
C p + C f Q (T )
(15)
C (T ) =
T
where Q(T ) is the quasi-renewal function with deteriorating
factor u.

(9)

A(t ) = F X (t ) +

C f = the cost to perform one failure replacement; N (t p ) =

the expected number of replacements (or renewals) during the
interval (0, t p ] . For imperfect maintenance, we consider the

( f (s )) = L ( f (u s )) and
1

*
Xn

R (T ) = P (T > t ) =

*
X1

n 1

L1 f X* (s ) du .
n

5. CASE STUDY
In recent years the Taiwan Air Force has completed
introducing the new line of jet fighters: F-16A/BMLU, Mirage
2000-5, and IDF. In a certain squadron, a certain planes
engine with an ABNC (after burner nozzle control) that had
been used for a long time. It was discovered during routine
flying training that the engine issued a fault code signal which
caused the after burner nozzle to be disenabled. When this
failure occurred, it caused the maximum thrust to suddenly die
off or otherwise influenced operation, but the engine could
still maintain thrust and normal operation. Therefore from a
safety standpoint this failure presented no immediate

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significant risk. The only loss was that of cost, because the
problem prevented the execution of routine training. However,
if this failure had occurred during combat and resulted in a
failed mission, human life could have been lost. There was a
vast discrepancy between the actual failure occurrence timing
and that predicted in the technical guidelines. The failure
necessitated corrective maintenance, adversely affected
squadron availability rate, and raised the cost of continued
operation. When consulted, the supplier conducted a failure
investigation and offered an engineering change plan.
However, the changes called for would demand great
expenditure of money and time and involve risk. We collect
the failure data of ABNC from January 1st 1998 to December
31st 2003 with 528 observations. We solve the optimal PM
policy problem by the following procedure.
(1) Fitting general distributions to the ith operating times
{X i } and the ith repair times {Yi } to estimate the scale

(3) Construct Laplace transforms: f X* (s ) and f X* (s ) .

1

(21)

f X* (s ) = L{f X (t )} =
1

0.0035
0.0035 + s

(22)

0.0035
0.0035 + 0.6235 n1 s

(23)

f X* (s ) = f X* (u n 1 s ) =
1

(4) Construct the Laplace transforms of the point availability

and the quasi-renewal functions. The Laplace transform
of quasi-renewal function can be derived:
n
n

0.0035
Q* (s ) = 1 i 1 = 1
(24)
s n =1 i =1 + u s s n =1 i =1 0.0035 + 0.6235n 1 s
The point availability function can be obtained:
n

1
1 (u ) n

A* =
+
n
i 1
+ s n =1 + u s i =1 ( + u s )
1

0.0035 + s

f X (t ) and g Y (t ) . In the total 528

observations, there are 326 first failures with failure rate
1 = 0.0035 , 166 second failures with failure rate
2 = 0.0058 , and 36 third failures with 3 = 0.0081 .
Applying the reliability analysis software, Weibull++, we
obtain the reliability functions of ABNC for the first,
second, and third failures as shown in Figure 1.
parameters of

1 = 0.0035 , f X (t ) = e t = 0.0035 e 0.0035 t

n
0.6235 0.0035
(
)
+
n
n =1 0.0035 + 0.6235 s

i =1

(25)
0.0035 + 0.6235 s

i 1

From the eq (25), we apply Mathematica 4.1 to analyze

the system point availability numerically and derive the
results as shown in Figure 2.
A

Rel i aS oft's W eibul l ++ 6.0 - www.W ei bull .c om

Rel i abi l i ty vs T i m e

1. 00

Mult i-Plot
D ata 1
E1 R R X - SR M M ED

0.8

F =326 / S =0
D ata 2
0. 80

E1 R R X - SR M M ED

F =166 / S =0
D ata 3

0.6

E1 R R X - SR M M ED

F =36 / S =0

0.4

Reliability, R(t)=1-F(t)

0. 60

0.2
0. 40

T
500

1000

1500

2000

0. 20

Figure 2. Point Availability functions for ABNC.

( = 0.0035u = 0.6235)

S A N G-C H I N Y A N G
C C IT
2004/ 08/ 12 20: 12

0
0

400. 00

800. 00
1200. 00
Tim e, (t )

1600. 00

2000. 00

1 =0 .0 0 3 5 , =0 .7 8 8 2
2 =0 .0 0 5 8 , =0 .8 3 2 7
3 =0 .0 0 8 1 , =0 .8 5 4 0

Figure 1. Failure Data of ABNC (Reliability vs. Operation

Time)
(2) Determine the deterioration parameters, ui and vi , for
the system operating and repair times, respectively. We
calculate the deterioration parameter between the first
and second failures, u1 = 1 2 = 0.60344 ; and the
deterioration parameter between the second and third
failures, u 2 = 2 3 = 0.71605 . The weighted average
deterioration factor can be obtained:
166 0.60344 + 36 0.71605
u=
= 0.62350 .
166 + 36

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(5) Calculate the point availability and evaluate the error

( An+1 An 0.001 ) to determine the value of n, the
number of convolution. The calculation of point
availability for different values of convolution, n, at
different times are ahown in Table 1 with = 0.0035 and
u = 0.6235. From Table 1, we can see that when
convultion number n = 12 all the errors at different times
are less than 0.001.
(6) Substitue the value of n into eq. (15) to derive the minimal
maintenance cost rate, optimal CM number, optimal PM
replacement time, and the corresponding system point
availability of the BPM policy. The cost of PM, C p ,
includes the cost of the materials, labor and equipment
used by the squadron and the depot in repairing the
ABNC.

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0-7803-8824-0/05/$20.00 2005 IEEE

T = 200
n
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

An
0.78007
0.90050
0.94993
0.97126
0.98120
0.98619
0.98887
0.99037

An+1-An
0.12043
0.04942
0.02133
0.00993
0.00499
0.00267
0.00150
0.00087

T = 300
An
0.62205
0.77483
0.85472
0.89688
0.91989
0.93291
0.9405
0.94502
0.94776
0.94944
0.95047

An+1-An
0.15278
0.07989
0.04215
0.02300
0.01301
0.00758
0.00452
0.00274
0.00167
0.00103
0.00063

T = 500
An
0.19665
0.29044
0.35861
0.40471
0.43479
0.45404
0.46623
0.47390
0.47872
0.48173
0.48361
0.48478

An+1-An
0.09379
0.06816
0.04610
0.03007
0.01925
0.01219
0.00767
0.00481
0.00301
0.00188
0.00117
0.00073

this case the optimal PM policy for ABNC is APM with

optimal maintenance cycle at 176 cycles and with
minimal maintenance cost rate for 4247.78 NT/cycle.

T = 700
An
0.10322
0.15839
0.20060
0.23017
0.24991
0.26274
0.27095
0.27615
0.27942
0.28147
0.28275

An+1-An
0.05516
0.04220
0.02956
0.01974
0.01283
0.00820
0.00519
0.00327
0.00205
0.00128
0.00080

T = 80 ~ 240
T
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
220
240

Table 1. point availability for different values of convolution

(n) at different times

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CT
7109.94
6549.32
6231.81
6064.73
6002.55
6019.72
6099.88
6231.13
6403.84

T = 140 ~ 180
T
140
145
150
155
160
165
170
175
180

QT
0.59736
0.62502
0.65336
0.68240
0.71218
0.74272
0.77405
0.86019
0.83916

T = 161 ~ 169

CT
6064.73
6040.57
6022.42
6009.86
6002.55
6000.15
6002.38
6008.98
6019.72

T
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169

QT
0.71823
0.72403
0.73041
0.73655
0.74272
0.74982
0.75515
0.76142
0.76772

CT
6001.68
6001.01
6000.53
6000.25
6000.15
6000.23
6000.5
6000.95
6001.57

Table 2. Numerical Results of BPM

(A) Equipment:
The devices, testing stands, and
peripheral equipment used in maintenance were
purchased for 52,259,000NT. If we assume that the
life of this equipment is 20 years and that every year
120 repairs will be conducted, then the consumable
equipment cost of repairing the ABNC was
21,775NT.
(B) Materials: Bearings (1 set of 4) and the disposable
materials used in their repair required cost a total of
206,080NT.
(C) Labor: The time consumed by the squadrons part
change operation was 72.5 hrs./person. As the per
hour cost of one technicians service is 578NT
(monthly salary of 40,785 x 14.5 = 591,382NT
divided by the annual standard work time of 1024
hours), the cost of the operation was 72.5 x 578 =
41,905NT.
Thus, PM Maintenance Cost = (A) + (B) + (C) =
269,760NT. Failure correction maintenance cost C f
refers to the cost loss incurred because flight training
could not be performed plus the cost of PM. Each mission
flown by the aircraft in question costs a total of
700,000NT (including the flight and ground crew salaries,
fuel and ammunition cost). Therefore, the cost of
corrective maintenance was 969,760NT. The numerical
results of BPM are shown in Table 2 for renewal numbers
and maintenance cost rates at different times. The
minimal BPM cost rate is at T = 165 cycles with
maintenance cost rate C(T) = 6000.15 NT. Thus, the
optimal BPM policy is to preventively replace the ABNC
upon reaching every 165 cycles. The numerical results are
shown in Table 1.
(7) Substitute the value of n into eq. (20) to derive the
minimal maintenance cost rate, optimal CM number,
optimal PM replacement time, and the corresponding
system point availability of the APM policy. Based on eq
(20), the numerical analysis of the maintenance cost rate
for APM is shown in Table 3. The minimal APM cost
rate is at T = 176 cycles with maintenance cost rate
C(T)=4247.78 NT. Thus, the optimal APM policy is to
preventively replace the ABNC upon reaching the age of
176 cycles. Compare the results of the BPM and APM
policies to obtain the optimal PM policy. The comparison
results are summarized in Table 4. The APM policy is
better than BPM policy for PM cycle at 165 or 176. In

QT
0.30836
0.39718
0.49296
0.59736
0.71218
0.83916
0.97984
1.13542
1.30667

T = 100 ~ 260
T
100
120
140
160
180
200
220
240
260

QT
0.39718
0.49296
0.59736
0.71218
0.83916
0.97984
1.13542
1.30667
1.49393

CT
4911.1
4568.11
4369.08
4270.04
4249.29
4296.8
4409.4
4588.57
4839.29

T = 160 ~ 200
T
160
165
170
175
180
185
190
195
200

QT
0.71218
0.74272
0.77405
0.80619
0.83916
0.87299
0.90770
0.94331
0.97984

T = 171 ~ 179

CT
4270.04
4258.05
4250.71
4247.83
4249.29
4254.99
4264.84
4278.79
4296.8

T
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179

QT
0.78041
0.78680
0.79323
0.79969
0.80619
0.81271
0.81927
0.82587
0.83250

CT
4249.78
4249.03
4248.45
4248.06
4247.83
4247.78
4247.9
4248.2
4248.66

Table 3. Numerical Results of APM

T
165
176

BPM
Point
Maintenance
Availability
Cost Rate
99.5582
6000.15
99.3925
6010.8

APM
Point
Maintenance
Availability
Cost Rate
99.5582
4258.05
99.3925
4247.78

Table 4. Maintenance Cost Rate Comparison for APM and

BPM
6. CONCLUSIONS
This research applies quasi-renewal process to develop
the optimal preventive maintenance policy for imperfect
preventive maintenance models. Due to the system failure and
maintenance, the aging systems deteriorate during their life
cycle and lead to decrease of operation time and increase of
maintenance time. Thus, after failure and/or maintenance, the
system operating time, maintenance time, maintenance cost,
and environmental factors will deteriorate. Based on the
statistical analysis of failure and maintenance data, the failure
distribution and availability models of aging systems can be
constructed. Considering the block and age preventive
maintenance policies, separately, the maintenance cost models
are developed to minimize the maintenance cost rate. Using
the numerical analysis, the optimal block or age
preventive maintenance period can be solved. Finally, the
optimal preventive maintenance policy can be obtained via the
synthesis and analysis of different maintenance policies
subject to the constraint of availability requirements. In the
ABNC case study, without considering the imperfect
maintenance, the budget for maintenance cost will be under
estimate and cause insufficient resource for spare parts
provisioning. Using imperfect maintenance theory, the
deteriorating parameters can be derived to facilitate the

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construction of more accurate availability and maintenance

cost models. The results of this research can be applied to
obtain optimal preventive maintenance policy for different
equipment in the operational phase of the total life cycle.

Imperfect Maintenance, 2004 Proceedings Annual

Reliability and Maintainability Symposium, 2004, pp.
577-585.
10. H. E. Elsayed, Reliability Engineering, 1996, Addison
Wesley, pp. 527-540.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
BIOGRAPHIES
We are pleased to thank the National Science Council of
Taiwan for partially support under grant No: NSC 92-2213-E014 -006. We are extremely grateful to Dr. Suprasad V. Amari
and Dr. Joel A. Nachlas for their extraordinary care and
patience in reviewing and improving earlier versions of our
manuscript.

Sang-chin Yang, PhD

Department of Information Science
Chung-Cheng Institute of Technology
National Defense University
190 San-Yuan 1st Street
Ta-Hsi, Tao-Yuan 33509, TAIWAN

REFERENCES
e-mail: scyang@ccit.edu.tw
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H. Wang and H. Pham, A quasi-renewal process and its

applications in imperfect maintenance, Intl. J. Systems
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process and its applications in imperfect maintenance',
Intl. J. Systems Science, Vol.28, No. 12, 1997, pp. 1329.
H. Z. Wang, A Survey of Maintenance Policies of
Deteriorating Systems, European Journal of Operational
Research, 139, 2002, pp. 469-489.
R.E. Barlow and L.C. Hunter, Optimum Preventive
Maintenance Policies, Operations Research, 8, 1960, pp.
90-100.
T. Nakagawa, Optimal Policy of Continuous and
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Naval Research Logistics Quarterly, 31(4) , 1984, pp.
543-550.
H. Pham and H. Z. Wang, Imperfect Maintenance,
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I. J. Rehmert, Availability Analysis for the Quasi-Renewal
Process; 2000, Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic
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S.C. Yang and S.L. Kuo, Quasi-Renewal Approach to
Spares Provisioning for Deteriorating Systems under

RAMS 2005

Sang-chin Yang is Associate Professor of the Department of

Information Science and Director of Logistics Support
Education Center at Chung Cheng Institute of Technology
(CCIT), National Defense University (NDU), Taiwan, where
he has served on the faculty since 1988. He received his B.S.
in civil engineering from CCIT in 1988, his M.S. in systems
engineering in 1994ineering in 1999, both from Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr. Yang is a
Member of IEEE. His research interests include reliability
theory, maintenance policies, and integrated logistics support.
Te-wei Lin
Graduate School of Weapon System Engineering
Chung Cheng Institute of Technology
National Defense University
190 San-Yuan 1st Street,
Ta-His, Tao-Yuan 33509 TAIWAN
e-mail: g931701@yahoo.com.tw
Te-wei Lin is a graduate student of Weapon System
Engineering Department at CCIT, NDU, Taiwan. He is a
research assistant of the Integrated Logistics Education Center.
He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from CCIT in
1994. His research interests include logistics engineering and
systems engineering.

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