Availability assessment of a multi-state repairable bubble gum production system

This paper demonstrates a mathematical model based on Markov Modeling of a complex multi-state repairable bubble gum production system with an attempt to improve its availability. The preemptive resume priority repair discipline is followed to carry out repairs of sub-units of the system. The failure rates of all the different subcomponents of the system are taken as constant whereas their repair times are taken to follow general distribution. The mathematical model is established using probability considerations and supplementary variable technique. Lagrange´s method for partial differential equations is utilized to obtain the state probabilities. The reliability characteristics are evaluated in accordance with practical situation and operational behavior of the system is analyzed. Availability analysis of the system helped in identifying the critical factors and assessing their impact on the system availability. The effect of using single repair facility to perform repairs on priority is compared with employing multi repair facility to perform repairs immediately.