Reliability and Cost Assessment of a Plate Manufacturing System with Cold Standby and On-Demand Switching

Abstract

In this study, we explore the use of cold standby sparing to enhance system dependability while maintaining finite system resources. Scheduled backups are utilized to store completed sections of computing tasks, as active components periodically fail and standby components must assume the mission tasks as needed. These backups enable efficient system recovery, allowing standby components to continue from where the primary components left off, rather than restarting from scratch. The focus of this research is a plate manufacturing company that produces two types of plates: full and half plates. The system comprises three similar units, with the first unit producing full plates, the second unit producing half plates, and the third unit kept on cold standby initially for full plate production. By employing semi-Markov processes and the regenerative point technique, we analyze the cost and reliability of a system featuring one main unit and two replaceable, non-identical components. The system's state diagram incorporates probabilities, failure rates, and repair rates for individual system parameters. Specific values of unit failure/repair rates are used to generate tables and graphs, which are then analyzed to provide insights into the system parameters.