Risk assessment tool for maintenance selection

Selecting maintenance policy is important for efficient operation of contemporary complex computer systems, when not only reliability, but also financial factors must be taken into consideration. This work presents an approach which is based on the concept of a life curve and discounted cost used to study the effect of equipment aging under different maintenance strategies. The deterioration process is first described by a Markov model and then its various characteristics are used to develop the equipment life curve and quantify other reliability parameters. Based on these data, effects of various "what-if" maintenance scenarios can be estimated and their efficiency compared Simple life curves are combined to model equipment deterioration undergoing diverse maintenance actions, while computing other parameters of the model allows evaluating additional factors, such as probability of equipment failure.