Search procedure to solve integer programming problems arising in reliability design of a system

Abstract

In many reliability design problems, the decision variables can only have integer values. The redundancy allocation is an example of one such problem. Besides the redundancy optimization problem, there are many other problems, such as spare pans allocation, repairmen allocation which all necessitate an integer programming formulation. In other words, integer programming plays an important role in system reliability optimization. An algorithm is presented which provides an exact, simple and economical solution to any general class of integer programming problems and thereby offers reliability designers an efficient tool for system design. The algorithm can effectively be used to solve a wide variety of reliability design problems. The scope of use of this algorithm is also indicated and the procedure is adequately illustrated through an example.