Continuous life cycle cost model for repairable system

Traditionally, the estimation of maintenance cost of a repairable system was evaluated using discrete approach based on estimated number of system failure, cost of repair as well as the interest rates. As maintenance cost represents a significant portion of overall life cycle cost (LCC), accurate estimation of maintenance cost would influence LCC analysis. However, in actuality the failure of the repairable system occurs in a continuous probabilistic manner thus the assumption of discrete occurrence is rather inaccurate. This paper presents an alternative continuous LCC model to better represent the actual operating phenomena of repairable system. The model was established based on the widely used Weibull distribution probability density function and continuous combined interest method. The result of the developed LCC model was then validated using Monte Carlo method. The result indicates that the continuous LCC model is able to accurately estimate LCC for any given time that can be useful in decision making based on life cycle cost. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.