The spares provisioning problem with parts inventory : analysis of two extreme inventory policies

Abstract EN

A set of identical machines While operating deployed to meet a known and constant de , a machine could fail due to a failure of a critical built-in part, and a replacement part must be available before repair of the machine is initiated.

If the replacement part is out of stock, it must be ordered.

After a failed machine is repaired it acts as a stand-by if the number of operational machines exceeds the demand, otherwise, the machine is immediately deployed to meet demand.

The machine time-to-failure, ordering lead times, and repair times are all assumed to be exponentially distributed.

An algorithm is developed to determine the number of machines and repair channels needed to minimize cost subject to a service-level constraint under two extreme inventory policies of the replacement parts.

The algorithm, which provides exact solutions for one extreme policy and a good approximation to the other, retires negligible computer storage and execution time for large-sized problems.