Predicting from Early Failures the Last Failure Time of a (Log) Normal Sample

This paper presents a table of coefficients for best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) using the earliest r failure times to predict the n-th (last) failure time of a sample from a s-normal (or lognormal) life distribution. They are used to predict how long a sample of components will run until all fail, that is, how long a life test will last. This includes prediction of the life of a parallel system of n identical components from the first r component failure times. The table covers n = 2(1)10, r = 2(1)n - 1. The BLUPs are exact (approximate) for failure (time) censored data.