On the design of component test plans based on system reliability objectives

Consideration is given to the case of a series system of different components and binomial component data. For the case of equal numbers of units tested of each component (which can be shown to minimize total cost, subject to the risk constraints), the operating characteristic envelope is readily derived. From this envelope component test plans that satisfy the specified risks can be derived from equations that involve the cumulative binomial distribution function. Existing tables pertaining to acceptance sampling plans based on the binomial distribution can be used to determine the required number of component tests