Optimal Policy for the Replacement of Industrial Systems Subject to Technological Obsolescence – Using Genetic Algorithm

The technological obsolescence of industrial systems is characterized by the existence of challenger units possessing identical functionalities but with improved performance. This paper aims to define a new approach that makes it possible to obtain the optimal number of obsolete industrial systems which should be replaced by new-type units. This approach presents a new point of view compared with previous works available in the literature. The main idea and the originality of our approach is that we apply a genetic algorithm (GA) by considering the failure frequency, the influence of the environment/safety factors of the old-type systems and the purchase/implementation cost of the new-type units. These parameters are introduced in order to optimize this type of replacement in the context of engineering.