A simple condition monitoring model for a direct monitoring process

This paper addresses the problem of condition monitoring of a component which has available a measure of condition called wear. Wear accumulates over time and monitoring inspections are performed at chosen times to monitor and measure the cumulative wear. If past measurements of wear are available up to the present, and the component is still active, the decision problem is to choose an appropriate time for the next inspection based upon the condition information obtained to date. A simple model which minimizes the expected cost per unit time over the time interval between the current inspection and the next inspection time is derived, and numerical examples are given to demonstrate the solution method.