On the development and application of maintenance policies for a two-component system with failure dependence

Maintenance policies for two-component systems with failure dependence and economic dependence are considered in this paper. Policies considered are of the age-based replacement and opportunistic age-based replacement type. Where tractable, long-run costs per unit time are calculated using renewal-theory-based arguments; otherwise simulation studies are carried out. The management implications for the adoption of the various policies are discussed. The usefulness of the results in the paper is illustrated through application to a particular two-component system.