A Comparison of Several Component-Testing Plans for a Series System

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Abstract
We consider a series (1-out-of-n:F) system of n components with constant failure rates and consider three different classes of component-testing procedures all of which guarantee that the given consumer and producer risks are not exceeded. The three classes of component test procedures 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. The optimum plan in class A is equivalent to that in class C. Based on the requirement that both the consumer risk and the producer risk lie within specified levels, class A plans exhibit lower total testing costs in the selected numerical examples.