An Integrated Cost Model for the Joint Optimization of Process Control and Maintenance

An economic model is presented that incorporates both process control and maintenance procedures, and simultaneously optimizes their design parameters, and suggests that, under the Markovian deterioration assumption, in many cases a pure policy is economically justifiable.

Abstract

Statistical process control and preventive maintenance have been treated separately by past research. This study presents an economic model that incorporates both process control and maintenance procedures, and simultaneously optimizes their design parameters. It is shown how a pure process-control policy and a pure preventive-maintenance policy constitute special cases of the general model. Numerical examples illustrate the application of the method and suggest that, under the Markovian deterioration assumption, in many cases a pure policy is economically justifiable.