Maintenance strategies following the expiration of warranty

The authors study two types of replacement policies, following the expiration of warranty, for a unit with an IFR failure-time distribution: (1) the user applies minimal repair for a fixed length of time and replaces the unit by a new one at the end of this period; and (2) the unit is replaced by the user at first failure following the minimal repair period. In addition to stationary strategies that minimize the long-run mean cost to the user, the authors also consider nonstationary strategies that arise following the expiration of a nonrenewing warranty. Following renewing warranties, they prove that the cost rate function is pseudo-convex under a fixed maintenance period policy. The same result holds under nonrenewing repair warranties, and nonrenewing replacement warranties when the optimal maintenance period of each cycle is determined as a function of the age of the item in use at the end of the warranty period.