A general minimal repair model

Minimal repairs have been given considerable attention in the reliability literature. Instead of replacing a failed system by a new one, such a minimal repair restores the system to the state it had just before failure. But the state just before failure depends on the information which is available about the system. Different information levels are possible. This paper gives a general definition characterizing point processes which describe time points of minimal repairs with respect to a certain information level. Some examples demonstrate the wide range of applications.