AVAILABILITY OF AN R -OUT-OF-N SYSTEM WITH SPARES AND REPAIRS

We obtain the equilibrium solutions of an R-out-of-N system subject to random breakdown. There are M spares and a single repairman, who instals good spares into the system when breakdowns occur and also repairs the failed items. Installation has pre-emptive repeat priority over repairs. Arbitrary distributions of installation and repair times are allowed. Equilibrium availability and downtime distributions are obtained from the equilibrium state distribution.