Parallel machine replacement |
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| Authors: | Philip C Jones James L Zydiak Wallace J Hopp |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60201;2. Management Science Department, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60611 |
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| Abstract: | We consider the parallel replacement problem in which there are both fixed and variable costs associated with replacing machines. Increasing maintenance costs motivate replacements, and the fixed replacement cost provides incentive for replacing machines of different ages together in “clusters.” We prove two intuitive results for this problem. First, it is never optimal to split a cluster of like-aged machines, and second, it is never optimal to replace newer clusters before older clusters. By incorporating these two results into an algorithmic approach, we vastly reduce the amount of computation required to identify an optimal replacement policy. |
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