Modelling preventive maintenance for auxiliary components

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a preventive maintenance (PM) model for auxiliary components whose failures may not necessarily correspond to system failure but rather to faster system degradation.Design methodology approach - The concept of load sharing was utilized to build a suitable Markov model for the problem. Regression analysis was used to estimate the various transition rates of the model. A real field application was used to illustrate the model.Findings - Models addressing the design of an optimal PM strategy for such a problem are rare in the literature. The load-sharing concept was borrowed and found very useful to model this problem. Regression analysis based on real field data was also found to be useful to estimate the model transition rates.Originality value - This paper addresses a problem that is not given enough attention in the currently available literature. Available models assume that a PM activity will restore the equipment to an as new, or at least to a better, condition. There exist situations, however, where a PM activity does not amend any damage but instead slows down further deterioration.