I am looking for algorithms to prioritize equipment renewals.Input: (years since last renewal, cost of renewal, importance of renewal).Output: An ordering of the equipment according to which it will be renewed.I do not know if there are any algorithms for this particular problem. If you have any idea how to fit this problem into a more general context, that would be useful too.A way to rephrase the problem:You have $n$ pieces of equipment $E_1,\ldots,E_n$. For each piece $E_i$ you have a triple $(\text{age}_i,\text{cost}_i,\text{importance}_i)$. At the beginning of the year you have $X$ amount of money. You want to spend these money in order to minimize the function $\sum_i \text{age}_i\cdot \text{importance}_i$ at the end of the year. So, during the year you have to select a subset $S$ of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ such that:$$\sum_{i\in S} \text{cost}_i\le X \text{ (cost constraint)}$$ and the sum $$\sum_{i\in S} \text{age}_i\cdot \text{importance}_i$$ is maximal among all subsets of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ that satisfy the cost constraint.Any help?
Algorithms to prioritize equipment renewals
algorithms;optimization
Given the clarification to the question, it is a 0-1 knapsack problem (your knapsack is the money available, the value is the objective function), and look for ways to solve that one, for example following the Wikipedia lead. Edit: A simple approximate algorithm would be just sort equipment on increasing cost per unit (age * importance), and in that order include each if it fits (doesn't run over maximal cost). In the case of continuous knapsack (i.e., can include a fraction of a item) that strategy is optimal. Should work fine if there are many items, and the data isn't too spread out.