Citation

Georgin JP, Signoret JP. Reliab. Eng. 1981; 2(4): 259-269.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0143-8174(81)90002-0

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We show in this paper that the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) is non-homogeneous from a confidence level point of view. We present a new estimate as easy to handle as MLE but confidence level homogeneous, working even when the number of failures is equal to zero and giving the median values of the failure rates as well as the median values of the probabilities of failure upon demand. We propose to use this new estimate for reliability calculations instead of MLE.