A Comparison of Several Component-Testing Plans For A Parallel System

We consider a parallel (1-out-of-n:G) system of n components with constant failure rates and treat three different classes of component testing procedures all of which guarantee that the given consumer and producer risks are not exceeded. It is necessary to impose certain restrictions on the magnitude of the unknown failure rates for guaranteeing the producer risk. The three classes of component test procedures use Type-I censoring and use decision rules based on: A) the total number of component failures during the testing periods, B) the number of failures for each individual component, and C) the maximum likelihood estimate of system reliability. Based on the requirement that both the consumer and producer risks lie within specified levels, class A plans exhibit lower testing costs in the selected numerical examples.