Machine interference problem with a random environment (Q1261387)

The present paper is concerned with the classical machine-interference problem under the following conditions: the running and repair times of each machines are supposed to be exponentially distributed random variables with parameter depending on the state of a varying environment. Assuming that the repair rate is much greater than the failure rate (``fast service'') it is shown that the time until the number of stopped machines reaches a certain level converges weakly, under appropriate norming, to an exponentially distributed random variable. Furthermore, some numerical examples illustrate the problem in question in the field of textile winding.