Optimal maintenance strategy for non‐renewing replacement–repair warranty

In this paper, we study the maintenance policy following the expiration of the non‐renewing replacement–repair warranty (NRRW). For such purposes, we first define the non‐renewing free replacement–repair warranty and the non‐renewing pro rata replacement–repair warranty. Then the maintenance model following the expiration of the NRRW is discussed from the user's point of view. As the criterion to determine the optimal maintenance strategy, we formulate the expected cost rate per unit time from the user's perspective. All system maintenance costs incurred after the warranty is expired are paid by the user. Given the cost structures during the life cycle of the system, we determine the optimal maintenance period following the expiration of the NRRW. Finally, a few numerical examples are given for illustrative purposes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

保修策略下的系统最优更换模型

本文研究了单部件组成系统的保修策略 ,提出了一种新的按比例保修和免费保修策略 .在假定故障部件不能“修复如新”的条件下 ,利用几何过程分别考察了顾客和商家关于产品的长期运行平均费用 ,求出了它们的明显表达式 ,并且可以通过数值法或分析法求出其最优保修期 .     

考虑维修时间的总质保需求预测模型

激烈的市场竞争迫使制造商们逐渐向以顾客需求为中心的公司转变。在近 20 年内,作为影响顾客满意度的主要因素,产品的质保服务管理的相关研究开始成为学术界的焦点。良好的质保服务会给企业节省较多的运营成本,故对于刚投入市场的新产品而言,准确地预测质保需求对制造商合理分配资金等具有重要意义。以往对质保需求的预测模型都局限于分析长期意义上一个产品的总质保成本,忽略了产品的维修时间和动态销售过程对准确预测产品的总质保需求及成本的影响。为此,以销售期内的产品所产生的维修需求为主要的研究对象,深入探讨维修时间对预测质保需求的影响。模型中,利用非齐次泊松过程模拟产品的动态销售过程,并利用复合随机过程中的交错更新理论来刻画维修时间对总质保需求的影响。最后的参数分析,为企业更好地管理质保服务提供了重要的现实依据。     

Optimal warranty policies for systems with imperfect repair

We investigate a system whose basic warranty coverage is minimal repair up to a specified warranty length. An additional service is offered whereby first failure is restored up to the consumers’ chosen level of repair. The problem is studied under two system replacement strategies: periodic maintenance before and after warranty. It turns out that our model generalizes the model of Rinsaka and Sandoh [K. Rinsaka, H. Sandoh, A stochastic model with an additional warranty contract, Computers and Mathematics with Applications 51 (2006) 179–188] and the model of Yeh et al. [R.H. Yeh, M.Y. Chen, C.Y. Lin, Optimal periodic replacement policy for repairable products under free-repair warranty, European Journal of Operational Research 176 (2007) 1678–1686]. We derive the optimal maintenance period and optimal level of repair based on the structures of the cost function and failure rate function. We show that under certain assumptions, the optimal repair level for additional service is an increasing function of the replacement time. We provide numerical studies to verify some of our results.     

关于汽车追尾冲击模型的维修策略

讨论了关于汽车追尾的冲击模型的可修系统．在系统不能修复如新的条件下,假定汽车运行时间构成随机递减的几何过程,逐次追尾后的维修时间构成随机递增的几何过程．分别考虑汽车按比例保修和免费保修条件下,以汽车追尾次数N为策略,以车主在汽车长期运行单位时间内的期望费用为目标函数,导出目标函数的解析表达式P1（N）与P2（N）．最后,通过实例分析,求出最优策略N＊,使得车主在汽车长期运行单位时间内的期望费用最小．     

Dynamic pricing and warranty policies for products with fixed lifetime

We consider a repairable product with known market entry and departure times. A warranty policy is offered with product purchase, under which a customer can have a failed item repaired free of charge in the warranty period. It is assumed that customers are heterogeneous in their risk attitudes toward uncertain repair costs incurred after the warranty expires. The objective is to determine a joint dynamic pricing and warranty policy for the lifetime of the product, which maximizes the manufacturer’s expected profit. In the first part of the analysis, we consider a linearly decreasing price function and a constant warranty length. We first study customers’ purchase patterns under several different pricing strategies by the manufacturer and then discuss the optimal pricing and warranty strategy. In the second part, we assume that the warranty length can be altered once during the product lifetime in developing a joint pricing and warranty policy. Numerical studies show that a dynamic warranty policy can significantly outperform a fixed-length warranty policy.     

有延迟修理的两部件串联系统的预防维修策略

研究由两个部件串联组成的系统的预防维修策略, 当系统的工作时间达到T时进行预防维修, 预防维修使部件恢复到上一次故障维修后的状态. 当部件发生故障后进行故障维修, 因为各种原因可能会延迟修理. 部件在每次故障维修后的工作时间形成随机递减的几何过程, 且每次故障后的维修时间形成随机递增的几何过程. 以部件进行预防维修的间隔T和更换前的故障次数N组成的二维策略(T,N)为策略, 利用更新过程和几何过程理论求出了系统经长期运行单位时间内期望费用的表达式, 并给出了具体例子和数值分析.     

Evaluation of the warranty cost of a product with type III stochastic dependence between components

This paper analyses respectively the expected warranty costs from the perspectives of the manufacturer and the consumer. For a two-component series system with stochastic dependence between components, both the non-renewing free replacement policy and the renewing replacement policy are examined. It is assumed that whenever component 1 fails, a random damage to component 2 is occurred while a component 2 failure causes the system failure. Component 2 fails when its total accumulative damage exceeds a pre-determined level L. By considering the consumer’s behavior and the product service time, the warranty costs allocations between the manufacturer and the consumer are presented. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the applicability of the methodology. It is proved that, independent of the type of the warranty policy, the failure interaction between components impacts the manufacturer profits and the consumer costs. The initial warranty length has also an impact on the product quality preferences to both the consumer and the manufacturer.     

基于交替更新过程的模糊随机破产模型

假设索赔额、盈余额和更新过程均是在模糊随机环境中,并且将索赔过程定义为在交替更新过程.当索赔额和时间间隔是服从不同的指数分布时,本文建立了交替更新过程下的模糊随机破产模型,并给出了最终破产概率公式与最终破产机会均值公式.     

考虑更新延长两阶段保修的二手产品维修策略优化

针对二手产品的维修问题,给出了二手产品生命周期的定义,提出了考虑更新延长两阶段保修的维修策略模型。该策略综合考虑了产品的年龄变化、延保折扣、小修和生产损失费用等因素,从顾客的角度出发,建立以顾客期望总费用率最小化为目标的免费更换保修和按比例更换保修两种策略模型,并给出模型最优化的相关理论证明。算例研究验证了模型的有效性,并对参数的灵敏度进行了分析,文中结论可为顾客进行产品维修计划提供决策依据。     

Inspection scheduling for imperfect production processes under free repair warranty contract

The paper considers scheduling of inspections for imperfect production processes where the process shift time from an ‘in-control’ state to an ‘out-of-control’ state is assumed to follow an arbitrary probability distribution with an increasing failure (hazard) rate and the products are sold with a free repair warranty (FRW) contract. During each production run, the process is monitored through inspections to assess its state. If at any inspection the process is found in ‘out-of-control’ state, then restoration is performed. The model is formulated under two different inspection policies: (i) no action is taken during a production run unless the system is discovered in an ‘out-of-control’ state by inspection and (ii) preventive repair action is undertaken once the ‘in-control’ state of the process is detected by inspection. The expected sum of pre-sale and post-sale costs per unit item is taken as a criterion of optimality. We propose a computational algorithm to determine the optimal inspection policy numerically, as it is quite hard to derive analytically. To ease the computational difficulties, we further employ an approximate method which determines a suboptimal inspection policy. A comparison between the optimal and suboptimal inspection policies is made and the impact of FRW on the optimal inspection policy is investigated in a numerical example.     

The effect of lifetime buys on warranty repair operations

Lifetime buys are a common practice in the electronics and telecommunication industries. Under this practice, manufacturers procure their repair parts inventory in one order to support the spare part needs of a product for the duration of its warranty repair period. In this paper, we consider a repair operation in which defective items under warranty are returned to a manufacturer who either repairs these items using its spare parts inventory or replaces each defective unit with a new product. We show how fixed repair capability costs, variable repair costs, inventory holding costs, and replacement costs affect a firm's optimal repair and replacement decisions. The model is used to gain insights for products from a major mobile device manufacturer in the United States.     

A novel repair model for imperfect maintenance

^** Email: shaomin.wu{at}reading.ac.uk Commonly used repair rate models for repairable systems in thereliability literature are renewal processes, generalised renewalprocesses or non-homogeneous Poisson processes. In additionto these models, geometric processes (GP) are studied occasionally.The GP, however, can only model systems with monotonously changing(increasing, decreasing or constant) failure intensities. Thispaper deals with the reliability modelling of failure processesfor repairable systems where the failure intensity shows a bathtub-typenon-monotonic behaviour. A new stochastic process, i.e. an extendedPoisson process, is introduced in this paper. Reliability indicesare presented, and the parameters of the new process are estimated.Experimental results on a data set demonstrate the validityof the new process.     

Geometric processes and replacement problem

In this paper, we introduce and study the geometric process which is a sequence of independent non-negative random variablesX ₁,X ₂,... such that the distribution function ofX _n isF (a ^n–1 x), wherea is a positive constant. Ifa>1, then it is a decreasing geometric process, ifa<1, it is an increasing geometric process. Then, we consider a replacement model as follows: the successive survival times of the system after repair form a decreasing geometric process or a renewal process while the consecutive repair times of the system constitute an increasing geometric process or a renewal process. Besides the replacement policy based on the working age of the system, a new kind of replacement policy which is determined by the number of failures is considered. The explicit expressions of the long-run average costs per unit time under each replacement policy are then calculated, and therefore the corresponding optimal replacement policies can be found analytically or numerically.     

A general age-replacement model with minimal repair under renewing free-replacement warranty

A general age-replacement model in which incorporates minimal repair, planned and unplanned replacement, is considered in this paper for products under a renewing free-replacement warranty policy. For both warranted and non-warranted products, cost models from the user’s perspective are developed, and the corresponding optimal replacement ages are derived such that the long-run expected cost rate is minimized. The impacts of a product warranty on the optimal replacement model are investigated analytically. Furthermore, we show that the optimal replacement age for a warranted product is closer to the end of the warranty period than for a non-warranted product. Finally, numerical examples are given for illustration.     

Last time buy decisions for products sold under warranty

Manufacturers supplying products under warranty need a strategy to deal with failures during the warranty period: repair the product or replace it by a new one, depending on e.g. age and/or usage of the failed product. An (implicit) assumption in virtually all models is that new products to replace the failed ones are immediately available at given replacement costs. Because of the short life cycles of many products, manufacturing may be discontinued before the end of the warranty period. At that point in time, the supplier has to decide how many products to put on the shelf to replace failed products under warranty that will be returned from the field (the last time buy decision). This is a trade-off between product availability for replacement and costs of product obsolescence. In this paper, we consider the joint optimization of repair-replacement decisions and the last time buy quantity for products sold under warranty. We develop approximations to estimate the total relevant costs and service levels for this problem, and show that we can easily find near-optimal last time buy quantities using a numerical search. Comparison to discrete event simulation results shows an excellent performance of our methods.     

有两种故障状态的两部件串联系统的预防维修策略

本文研究的是由两个部件串联组成且有两种故障状态的系统的预防维修策略, 当系统的工作时间达到T时进行预防维修, 预防维修使部件恢复到上一次故障维修后的状态。每个部件发生故障都有两种状态, 可维修和不可维修。当部件的故障为可维修故障时, 修理工对其进行故障维修, 且每次故障维修后的工作时间形成随机递减的几何过程, 每次故障后的维修时间形成随机递增的几何过程。当部件发生N次可维修故障或一次不可维修故障时进行更换。以部件进行预防维修的间隔和更换前的可维修故障次数N组成的二维策略(T, N) 为策略, 利用更新过程和几何过程理论求出了系统经长期运行单位时间内期望费用的表达式, 并给出了具体例子和数值分析。     

The role of repair strategy in warranty cost minimization: An investigation via quasi-renewal processes

Most companies seek efficient rectification strategies to keep their warranty related costs under control. This study develops and investigates different repair strategies for one- and two-dimensional warranties with the objective of minimizing manufacturer’s expected warranty cost. Static, improved and dynamic repair strategies are proposed and analyzed under different warranty structures. Numerical experimentation with representative cost functions indicates that performance of the policies depend on various factors such as product reliability, structure of the cost function and type of the warranty contract.     

Simulation of First-Passage Times for Alternating Brownian Motions

The first-passage-time problem for a Brownian motion with alternating infinitesimal moments through a constant boundary is considered under the assumption that the time intervals between consecutive changes of these moments are described by an alternating renewal process. Bounds to the first-passage-time density and distribution function are obtained, and a simulation procedure to estimate first-passage-time densities is constructed. Examples of applications to problems in environmental sciences and mathematical finance are also provided.AMS 2000 Subject Classification: 60J65, 60G40, 93E30     

An order-revenue inventory model with returns and sudden obsolescence

This paper introduces an EOQ-like state-dependent inventory model with returns and sudden obsolescence. Returns arrive according to a MAP process governed by the underlying Markov chain. Additionally, the system is totally obsoleted at stationary renewal times. Hitting level 0 yields an order of size $Q$. We assume order, loss, and shortage costs in addition to revenue. By applying hitting-time transforms and martingales we derive the cost functionals under the discounted criterion. Numerical results, insights, and a comparative study are provided.