A control-limit policy and software for condition-based maintenance optimization

The focus of the paper is the optimization of condition-based maintenance decisions within the contexts of physical asset management. In particular, the analysis of a preventive replacement policy of the control-limit type for a deteriorating system subject to inspections at discrete point time is presented. Cox's Proportional Hazards Model with a Weibull baseline hazard function and time dependent stochastic covariates is used to describe the failure rate of the system. The methods of estimating model parameters and the calculation of the optimal policy are given. The structure of the decision-making software EXAKT is presented. Experience with collecting, preprocessing and using real oil and vibration data is reported.