The Optimal Limit of the Number of Consecutive Minimal Repairs

Brown and Proschan(1983) introduced a model for imperfect repair. At each feilure of a device, with probability p, it is repaired completely or replaced with a new device(perfect repair), and with probability 1 - p, it is returned to the functioning state, but it is only recovered to its condition just prior to failure(imperfect repair or minimal repair). In this paper, we limit the number of consecutive minimal repairs by n. We find some useful properties about ${\mu}$$\_$k/, the expected time between the k-th and the (k + 1)-st repair under the assumption that only minimal repairs are performed. Then, we assign cost to each repair and find the value of n which minimizes the long-run average cost for a fixed p under the condition that distribution F of the device is DMRL.