Reliability test for degradation data based on ranked set sampling

Abstract In this article, we consider test for the two null hypotheses for and , two widely useful tests in reliability, based on ranked set sampling (RSS). We derive the likelihood ratio test as well as the associated exact and asymptotic results. Considering a fixed significance level and power of the test, we show that the proposed test statistic outperforms the existing test. In small sample cases, the proposed test leads to a much narrower confidence interval for the reliability function . Then, the test statistics obtained from simple random sampling and RSS schemes are compared through which, the efficiency of using RSS is demonstrated. For illustration, we apply the proposed test to a degradation data from the reliability literature. Upon using RSS, the cost of measurement gets reduced and efficiency gets improved, suggesting the importance and use of RSS data in reliability experiments and their design.