Combined Optimisation of System Architecture and Maintenance

The dependability analysis of safety-critical engineering systems during the early stages of design helps ensure that requirements are met and also reduces cost that may be incurred due to modifications later in the process. One attribute that can be analysed during the infancy of design is scheduled preventive maintenance (PM) through optimisation. PM is normally optimised in isolation to other system design improvement mechanisms. It is however helpful if PM could be optimised in combination with other mechanisms such improving the system's architecture. By combining these optimization objectives more design possibilities can be simultaneously explored, therefore helping to make better design decisions. In this paper we explore this type of optimization by using HiP-HOPS a scalable dependability analysis and optimisation tool.