(m,T) group maintenance policies

A model that recognizes the advantages of coordinated group maintenance planning is established. The maintenance policy that is investigated calls for group maintenance to be conducted at time T or upon m failures, whichever comes first. This policy combines the best features of the well-known T-age and m-failure replacement policies. Using a renewal approach the economic objective is to minimize the long-run (expected) average cost per unit time. General cost structures and failure time distributions are allowed. An algorithm that does not require unimodality properties is provided for computing optimal policies for general failure time distribution and cost structures.