An optimal burn-in preventive-replacement model associated with a mixture distribution

Abstract A mixture arises in a number of situations. A typical situation is that a population is heterogeneous and consists of several sub‐populations, which represent mutually exclusive failure modes (usually early failures where the mean time to failure (MTTF) is ‘short’ and wear‐out failures where the MTTF is ‘long’ and the hazard rate is increasing). When the time to failure of an item follows a mixture distribution, it is difficult to determine an appropriate operational or/and maintenance policy to reduce the early‐phase failures and field operational cost. This paper examines the effectiveness of jointly applying a burn‐in procedure and preventive replacement policy to such items, and discusses implementation‐related issues associated with the combined policy. A numerical example is also included. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.