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, Châtelet 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, TP. Those calculations were applied within the programming tool Matlab. Thus, highly interesting results and improvements of previous studies were obtained. q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.