Optimum Demonstration Tests with Grouped Inspection Data from An Exponential Distribution

Life test data from periodic inspection of test items consist of the number of items failing in each inspection period and are called, grouped data. This paper presents statistical methods for reliability measurement and demonstration from grouped data on items from an exponential life distribution. The maximum likelihood method is used to estimate mean life; tables are given for optimum inspection times. A new statistical (demonstration) test for mean life is locally most powerful and is simpler than the test based on the maximum likelihood estimate. Tables for this test are provided. These tests also apply to a Weibull distribution with known shape parameter.