ABSTRACT
The goal of this chapter is to present models that can be used to determine optimal inspection schedules, that is, the points in time at which the inspection action should take place.
The basic purpose behind an inspection is to determine the state of the equipment. Once indicators, such as bearing wear, gauge readings, and quality of the product, which are used to describe the state, have been specified, and the inspection made to determine the values of these indicators, some further maintenance action may be taken, depending on the state identified. When the inspection should take place ought to be influenced by the costs of the inspection (which will be related to the indicators used to describe the state of the equipment) and the benefits of the inspection, such as detection and correction of minor defects before major breakdown occurs.
