Finite State Markovian Decision Processes
Finite State Markovian Decision Processes
OPTIMALITY OF CONTROL LIMIT MAINTENANCE POLICIES UNDER NONSTATIONARY DETERIORATION
Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences
The Optimal Timing of Living-Donor Liver Transplantation
Management Science
Lagrangian relaxation and constraint generation for allocation and advanced scheduling
Computers and Operations Research
Hi-index | 0.01 |
We consider a manufacturing system in which a buffer has been placed between the input generator and the production unit. The input generator supplies at a constant rate the buffer with the raw material, which is pulled by the production unit. The pull-rate is greater than the input rate when the buffer is not empty. The two rates become equal as soon as the buffer is evacuated. The production unit deteriorates stochastically over time and the problem of its optimal preventive maintenance is considered. Under a suitable cost structure it is proved that the optimal average-cost policy for fixed buffer size is of control-limit type, if the repair times are geometrically distributed. Efficient Markov decision process solution algorithms that operate on the class of control-limit policies are developed, when the repair times are geometrical or follow a continuous distribution. The optimality of a control-limit policy is also proved when the production unit after the end of a maintenance remains idle until the buffer is filled up. Furthermore, numerical results are given for the optimal policy if it is permissible to leave the production unit idle whenever it is in operative condition.