Economics of the Trade-Off among Reliability, Maintainability and Supply.
Abstract
This report is one of a series dealing with the economics of choice in complex system development. The first, Reference 4, is basic in presentation and should be read by those interested in the application of production economics theory as it applies to the support field. Another, Reference 8, serves to bridge the gap between theory and the methods of Part II of this report. One of the prime objectives of these studies is the stimulation of interest on the part of the systems manager and the reliability engineer in the potential of certain economic tools to guide decisions regarding allocation of development effort. The text of this report is divided into two parts. Part I presents the economic theory of choice, i.e., how, with given funds, to maximize system availability or how to minimize costs of reliability and maintainability for selected levels of availability. The physical aspect of input-output analysis is first discussed wherein reliability and maintainability are looked upon as the inputs to the output of system availability. Finally, costs of inputs and their value are viewed relative to the decision-making process involved in the physical picture. Emphasis is on the trade-off issue as the basic problem, i.e., how to determine the optimal combination of reliability and maintainability, how to determine the optimal combination of component, subsystem, and system availabilities.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 30, 1962
- Accession Number
- AD0890371
Entities
People
- A. S. Goldman
- H. P. Kramer
- T. M. Whitin
- W. H. Root
Organizations
- General Electric