The optimal replacement problem was investigated for a multi-state deteriorated system for which the true internal state cannot be observed directly except when the system breaks down completely. The internal state was assumed to be monitored incompletely by a monitor that gives information related to the true state of the system. The problem was formulated as a partially observable Markov decision process. The optimal procedure was found to be a monotone procedure with respect to stochastic increasing ordering of the state probability vectors under some assumptions. Limiting the optimal procedure to a monotone procedure would greatly reduce the tremendous amount of calculation time required to find the optimal procedure.

This paper deals with the reliability and availability characteristics of three different series system configurations with warm standby components and a repairable service station. The failure time of the primary and warm standby are assumed to be exponentially distributed with parameters ${\lambda}$ and ${\alpha}$ respectively. The repair time distribution of each server is also exponentially distributed with parameter ${\mu}$. The breakdown time and the repair time of the service station are also assumed exponentially distributed with parameters ${\gamma}$ and ${\beta}$ respectively. We derive the reliability dependent on time, availability dependent on time, the mean time to failure, $MTTF_i$, and the steady-state availability $A_i$(${\infty}$) for three configurations and perform comparisons. Comparisons are made for specific values of distribution parameters and of the cost of the components. The three configurations are ranked based on: $MTTF_i$, $A_i$(${\infty}$), and $C_i/B_i$ where $B_i$ is either $MTTF_i$ or $A_i$(${\infty}$).

This paper deals with the reliability analysis of a complex system, which consists of two subsystems A and B connected in series. Subsystem A has only one unit and B has two units $B_1$ and $B_2$. Marked process has been applied to model the complex system. Present reliability model incorporated two repairmen: supervisor and novice to repair the failed units. Supervisor is always there and the novice remains in vacation and is called for repair as per demand. The repair rates for supervisor and novice follow general and exponential distributions respectively and the failure time for both the subsystems follows exponential distribution. The model is analyzed under "Head of line repair discipline". By employing supplementary variable technique, Laplace transformation and Gumbel-Hougaard family of copula various transition state probabilities, reliability, availability and cost analysis have been obtained along with the steady state behaviour of the system. At the end some special cases of the system have been taken.

This paper investigates a mathematical model of a system composed of two non-identical unit parallel system with common-cause failure, critical human error, non-critical human error, preventive maintenance and two type of repair, i.e. cheaper and costlier. This system goes for preventive maintenance at random epochs. We assume that the failure, repair and maintenance times are independent random variables. The failure rates, repair rates and preventive maintenance rate are constant for each unit. The system is analyzed by using the graphical evaluation and review technique (GERT) to obtain various related measures and we study the effect of the preventive maintenance preventive maintenance on the system performance. Certain important results have been derived as special cases. The plots for the mean time to system failure and the steady-state availability A(${\infty}$) of the system are drawn for different parametric values.

The main objective of this study is to present a new approach to obtain moment inequalities for the new better than renewal used (NBRU) class of life distributions. In order to achieve our main objective, the moment inequalities for NBRU class of life distribution using the new approach has been derived and then a new test for testing exponentiality against NBRU class based on these inequalities has been constructed. Then we calculate the Pitman asymptotic efficiency for the proposed test using some alternative distributions and comparing it with the other tests. Moreover, we make a comparison between Pittman asymptotic efficiencies (PAE's) and PAE's of some other tests. A simulation study is conducted to calculate the upper critical values and the power estimate of the proposed test for some common alternatives. Finally, we apply the suggested test to some real data.