Abstract: | An age replacement policy is introduced which incorporates minimal repair, replacement, and general random repair costs. If an operating unit fails at age y<T, it is either replaced by a new unit with probability p(y) at a cost c0, or it undergoes minimal repair with probability q(y) = 1−p(y). Otherwise, a unit is replaced when it fails for the first time after age T. The cost of the i-th minimal repair of an unit at age y depends on the random part C(y) and the deterministic part ci(y). The aim of the paper is to find the optimal T which minimizes the long run expected cost per unit time of the policy. Various special cases are considered. |