Detailed cannibalization decision making for maintenance systems in the military context

Cannibalization operations are useful alternatives in military maintenance systems, when spare parts are not available for replacement. As this operation introduces additional complexity to the system, detailed cannibalization decision making was rarely studied in the literature. In this study, a stochastic model, which can be used to make cannibalization decisions in both single and multiple stage situations, was developed. For the single stage case, the problem is deterministic and can be solved using existing algorithms. For the multiple stage case, the case study indicates that cannibalization would be an effective operation for keeping a system in high reliability and availability levels, especially when passive repair is conducted and the number of spare parts is not sufficient.