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We consider the problem to find a schedule for component replacement in a multi-component system, whose components possess stochastic lives and economic dependencies, such that the expected costs for maintenance during a pre-defined time period are minimized. The problem was considered in Patriksson et al. (Ann Oper Res 224:51–75, 2015b), in which a two-stage approximation of the problem was optimized through decomposition (denoted the optimization policy). The current paper improves the effectiveness of the decomposition approach by establishing a tighter bound on the value of the recourse function (i.e., the second stage in the approximation). A general lower bound on the expected maintenance cost is also established. Numerical experiments with 100 simulation scenarios for each of four test instances show that the tighter bound yields a decomposition generating fewer optimality …