Cost analysis in a two-unit standby system with a regular repairman and patience time

This paper develops a model for standby redundant system consisting of two identical units and a regular repairman. In an effort to increase the working time of the system, we put some “patience time” as the upper limit to repair time of the regular repairman. If the regular repairman is not able to do the repair within this patience time, we call an “expert” repairman for doing the repairs. Then the various measures of system effectiveness are calculated using semi-Markov processes and regenerative processes. Based on these measures, a rule is developed whether the services of the expert repairman should be utilized profitably or not. Further using numerical methods, we discuss the optimum patience time for various costs, maximizing the profit.