New methods to minimize the preventive maintenance cost of series-parallel systems using ant colony optimization

This article is based on a previous study made by Bris, Chatelet and Yalaoui [Bris R, Chatelet E, Yalaoui F. New method to minimise the preventive maintenance cost of series-parallel systems. Reliab Eng Syst Saf 2003;82:247-55]. They use genetic algorithm to minimize preventive maintenance cost problem for the series-parallel systems. We propose to improve their results developing a new method based on another technique, the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). The resolution consists in determining the solution vector of system component inspection periods, T-p. Those calculations were applied within the programming tool Matlab. Thus, highly interesting results and improvements of previous studies were obtained. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.