A replacement policy based on limiting the cumulative maintenance cost

The purpose of this paper is to propose, motivate and discuss a policy for optimal scheduling replacement intervals of technical systems only on the basis of maintenance cost parameter: a system is replaced by a new one as soon as the maintenance cost within a replacement cycle reaches or exceeds a given level. It is shown that with respect to the long‐run total maintenance cost rate, this policy is superior to the well‐known economic lifetime approach. The simple structure of this policy, the fact that maintenance cost data is usually available and that no lifetime data are required, facilitate its practical application.