Condition based spare parts supply

We consider a spare parts stock point that serves an installed base of machines. Each machine contains the same critical component, whose degradation behavior is described by a Markov process. We consider condition based spare parts supply, and show that an optimal, condition based inventory policy is 20% more efficient on average than a standard, state-independent base stock policy. We further propose an efficient and effective heuristic policy. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.