This paper discusses several strategies for the maintenance of light standards, where each light standard consists of n independent and identical lamps screwed on a chandelier. The lamps are subject to stochastic failures, and must be correctively replaced if the number of failed lamps reaches a prespecified number m; a norm that is set by the local management to guarantee a minimum luminance. As lamps have an increasing failure rate, and there is a fixed cost of hoisting the chandelier, we propose various variants of the m-failure group replacement rule which have in particular an age-criterion to indicate which of the non-failed lamps must be preventively replaced at the time that the chandelier is lowered for a corrective lamp replacement; we show how the optimal threshold age can be determined. It appears that this modification reduces the long run average maintenance cost of the Europe Combined Terminals with approximately 8.3%.

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hdl.handle.net/1765/7825
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper Series
Tinbergen Institute

Dekker, R., van der Meer, R., Plasmeijer, R. P., Wildeman, R., & de Bruin, J. (1996). Maintenance of Light Standards, a Case-Study (No. TI 96-166/9). Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper Series. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/7825