Quantitative Analysis for Management, 13/e

14.4 Markov Analysis of Machine Operations

Paul Tolsky, owner of Tolsky Works, has recorded the operation of his milling machine for ­several years. Over the past 2 years, 80% of the time the milling machine functioned correctly during the current month if it had functioned correctly in the preceding month. This also means that only 20% of the time did the machine not function correctly for a given month when it was functioning correctly during the preceding month. In addition, it has been observed that 90% of the time the machine remained incorrectly adjusted for any given month if it was incorrectly adjusted the preceding month. Only 10% of the time did the machine operate correctly in a given month when it did not operate correctly during ...