Purpose: System availability and life cycle cost are often used to evaluate the system performance and is influenced by the operation and maintenance characteristic. In this paper, we propose the method to improve life cycle cost and satisfy the target availability through redundancy allocation. Methods: We consider the redundancy is available at all items in multi level system. Thus, we assume that sub-assembly, module, components can be duplicated. Simulation and genetic algorithm are employed to optimize redundancy allocation. Results: Target availability is higher, the life cycle cost is increased. In addition, the items for redundancy are selected at higher level in multi level system if target availability is higher. Conclusion: We could know that target availability affects the duplication number of items and the selection of redundancy items. For further study, we will consider new optimization algorithms to compare with the proposed GA algorithm and improve optimization performance.