A novel approach for spares optimization of complex repairable systems

In this paper, several subsystems that are arranged in a complex network configuration is considered. The objective is to find the optimal number of spares in each subsystem that minimizes the overall cost associated with the system. The main contribution of this paper is in providing the bounds for the optimal spares quantity for each subsystem. The bounds are extremely useful to reduce the search space and hence improve the efficiency of the optimization algorithm. The examples demonstrate the efficiency and practical use of the proposed bounds.