Minimum Cost Test Plans for a Series System with Imperfect Interfaces

In order to draw cost-effective inferences on the reliability of a system one approach is to design test plans that only test the components of the system. However, such an approach is inappropriate when the component failures are not independent or when interfaces between components cause system failures. In such instances one must plan on testing the system as well as its components and a natural question of interest is the relative extent to which the system and the components should be tested. This paper analyzes such a situation for a series system and determines the optimal plan for allocating the total testing effort between component and system tests. It also illustrates the use of mathematical programming techniques for obtaining test plans that guarantee conventional statistical properties. Running Title: Optimum Test Plans Key Words: Reliability, Mathematical Programming, Series System, Test Plans AMS Subject Classification: 62 Statistics, 90 Economics, operations research..