2.5.3.2 Algorithm: Warranty Analysis

The data of the app are start and end times in the form (tl_1, tr_1), (tl_1, tr_2),...,(tl_k, tr_k) and each interval (tl_i, tr_i) contains n_i failures (if tr_i < \infty) or n_i suspensions (if tri = \infty), i = 1, 2,..., k . This arbitrarily censored dataset is first fitted with a weibull distribution using either the MLE(maximum likelihood estimation) or LS (least squares) method to obtain the parameters \beta and \eta. The results shown below are then computed based on the fitted model.

Summary of the warranty claims

Total number of units: \sum_{i=1}^k n_i
Observed number of failures: \sum_{i=1}^l n_i

where

  • k: total times.
  • l: the number of distinct interval censored times.

Expected Number of Failures

  • Reliability Function:
    R(t) = 1 - F(t;\beta,\eta) where F(t;\beta,\eta) is the CDF of weibull distribution.
  • Expected number of failures without known warranty length (L):
    ENF = \sum n_i\mathcal{L}_{i}( \beta, \eta \,;tl_i, tr_i )
    if tl_i < tr_i, then \mathcal{L}_{i}( \beta, \eta \,;tl_i, tr_i) = R(tl_i)-R(tr_i)
    if tl_i = tr_i or tr_i = \infty, then \mathcal{L}_{i}( \beta, \eta \,;tl_i, tr_i) = 1-R(tl_i)
  • Expected number of gailures with known warranty length (L):
    ENF = \sum n_i\mathcal{L}_{i}( \beta, \eta \,;tl_i, tr_i )
    if tl_i < tr_i, then \mathcal{L}_{i}( \beta, \eta \,;tl_i, tr_i) = R(tl_i)-R(min(L,tr_i))
    if tl_i = tr_i or tr_i = \infty, then \mathcal{L}_{i}( \beta, \eta \,;tl_i, tr_i) = 1-R(min(L,tl_i))

Confidence intervals for the expected number of failures

  • Two-sided 100(1-\alpha)\% confidence interval
    x_{L} = \frac{1}{2}\chi^2_{2s, 1-\alpha/2}
    x_{U} = \frac{1}{2}\chi^2_{2(s+1), \alpha/2}
  • One-sided 100(1-\alpha)\% lower confidence bound
    x_{L} = \frac{1}{2}\chi^2_{2s, 1-\alpha}
  • One-sided 100(1-\alpha)\% upper confidence bound
    x_{U}= \frac{1}{2}\chi^{2}_{2(s+1),\alpha}
where
  • s is the predicted number of future failures PNF.

Number of units at risk for future time periods

  • Without known warranty length (L): \sum_{i=1}^m n_i
  • With known warranty length (L): \sum_{i=1}^{m, tl_i < L} n_i
  • m: the number of distinct right censored times.

Predicted number of future failures

Predicted Number of failures without known warranty length (L):

  • If production quantity for each future period d_i is not provided:
     PNF(\Delta) = \sum_{i=1}^{m} n_i(1-\frac{R(tl_i + \Delta)}{R(tl_i)})
  • If production quantity for each future period d_i is provided:
     PNF(\Delta) = \sum_{i=1}^{m} n_i(1-\frac{R(tl_i + \Delta)}{R(tl_i)}) + \sum_{i=1}^{q}d_j(1-R(\Delta+1-i))

Predicted Number of failures without known warranty length (L):

  • If production quantity for each future period d_i is not provided:
     PNF(\Delta) = \sum_{i=1}^{m, tl_i<L} n_i(1-\frac{R(tl_i + \min(\Delta, L-tl_i)}{R(tl_i)})
  • If production quantity for each future period d_i is provided:
     PNF(\Delta) = \sum_{i=1}^{m, tl_i<L} n_i(1-\frac{R(tl_i + \min(\Delta, L-tl_i)}{R(tl_i)})+\sum_{i=1}^{q}d_j(1-R(\min(\Delta+1-i,L))
where
  • d_i is the production quantities d_1, d_2,...,d_r for future periods 1, 2,...,r
  • q = \min(r, \Delta)

Predicted cost of future failures

 PCF = PNF \times C
where
  • C is the provided cost per failure