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PurposeThis paper aims to address the effect of inspection intervals on cost function in condition‐based maintenance (CBM) and show how selecting an appropriate inspection scheme may reduce the cost associated to a CBM program.Design/methodology/approachIn CBM, replacement policy is often defined as a threshold for replacement or leaving an item in operation until next inspection, depending on monitoring information. The control limit replacement policy framework, already reported by some research referred to in this paper, is utilized to determine the optimal replacement threshold. Having released the assumption that the inspections are performed at fixed and constant intervals, an iterative procedure is proposed to evaluate alternative inspection schemes and their associated total average cost of replacements and inspections.FindingsThe paper proposes an approach in which preventive and failure replacement costs as well as inspection cost are taken into account to determine the optimal replacement policy and an age‐based inspection scheme such that the total average cost of replacements and inspections is minimized.Practical implicationsIn many practical situations where CBM is implemented, e.g. manufacturing processes, inspections require labor, specific test devices, and sometimes suspension of the operations. Thus, when inspection cost is considerable, by applying the proposed approach, one can obtain an inspection scheme that reduces the cost.Originality/valueUsing the approach proposed in the paper, a cost‐effective age‐based inspection scheme for a system under CBM is determined.

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