Maintenance Overtime Policies in Reliability Theory

This book introduces a new notion of replacement in maintenance and reliability theory. Replacement Overtime, where replacement is done at the first completion of a working cycle over a planned time, is a new research topic in maintenance theory and also serves to provide a fresh optimization technique in reliability engineering. In comparing replacement overtime with standard and random replacement techniques theoretically and numerically, 'Maintenance Overtime Policies in Reliability Theory' highlights the key improvements to be gained by adopting this new approach and shows how they can be applied to inspection policies, parallel systems and cumulative damage models. Utilizing the latest research in replacement overtime by internationally recognized experts, the reader will be introduced to new topics and methods, and learn how to apply this knowledge practically to actual reliability models. This book will serve as an essential guide to a new subject of study for graduate students and researchers and also provides a useful guide for reliability engineers and managers who have difficulties in maintenance of computer and production systems with random working cycles.

Professor Toshio Nakagawa has already published more than two hundred research papers on subject of maintenance and reliability theory in main reliability journals, and has published four books titled on "Maintenance Theory of Reliability" in 2005, "Shock and Damage Models in Reliability Theory" in 2007, "Advanced Reliability Models and Maintenance Policies" in 2008, and "Stochastic Processes with Applications to Reliability Theory" in 2011 from Springer. His research group in Nagoya has continuously studied reliability and maintenance theory and their applications since 1988, and has published a large number of papers in reliability journals and at international conferences. Professor Nakagawa has active research interchange mainly with professors in Taiwan, Korea and China. Dr. Xufeng Zhao is currently engaged in reliability theory and maintenance policies of stochastic systems, shock models and applications in computer science. His research works related with above topics have been published in European Journal of Operational Research, IEEE Transactions on Reliability, Reliability Engineering & System Safety, International Journal of Systems Science, and so on. He also has finished several book chapters published from Springer, Wiley, and World Scientific. Dr. Zhao is a member of Nagoya Computer and Reliability Research organized by Professor Toshio Nakagawa twenty-five years ago in Japan. He has some joint works with experts in Canada, Korea, Taiwan, and China. Not only that, Professor Nakagawa has just finished his fifth book from Springer entitled "Random Maintenance Policies" which will be published in 2014. Some of the results obtained in the book has been used into some real models in computer science by his group. Furthermore, Dr. Zhao studied shock and damage models extensively for his Ph.D. dissertation entitled "Studies on Extensive Cumulative Damage Models and Their Applications to Garbage Collections". All of these works serve as foundation for this note.