Determination of operations/production downtime for group replacement maintenance policy

Prediction of the duration of the downtime caused by maintenance, especially in the cases where the system considered consists of several repairable items, presents a challenge for maintenance managers, because of possible revenue losses during these intervals of time. Responds to this challenge through the new methodology for the fast, accurate prediction of maintainability measures related to the group replacement maintenance policy. It is applicable to group maintenance tasks in which individual replacement tasks are performed: simultaneously, sequentially, and combined. The method presented could be successfully used at the planning stage of the operations/production process when the information available is based on previous experience only, as well as at the stage when the process is performed. The applicability and usefulness of the methodology proposed is demonstrated through an illustrative numerical example.