Article ID: | iaor19991164 |
Country: | Japan |
Volume: | 41 |
Issue: | 2 |
Start Page Number: | 171 |
End Page Number: | 180 |
Publication Date: | Jun 1998 |
Journal: | Journal of the Operations Research Society of Japan |
Authors: | Vanderperre Edmond J. |
Keywords: | project management |
We analyse the reliability of Gaver's parallel system sustained by a cold standby unit and attended by two identical repairmen. The system satisfies the usual conditions (independent, identically distributed random variables, perfect repair, instantaneous and perfect switch, queueing). Each operative unit has a constant failure rate but a general repair time distribution. Our reliability analysis is based on a time dependent version of the supplementary variable method. We transform the basic equation into an integro-differential equation of the (mixed) Fredholm type. The equation generalizes Takàcs' integro-differential equation. In order to present computational results, we outline the solution procedure for a repair time distribution with an arbitrary rational Laplace–Stieltjes transform. A particular numerical example displays the survivor function with the security interval that ensures a reliability level of at least 95%.