Reliability demonstration test for a finite population

Abstract

AbstractIn many situations, we want to accept or reject a population with small or finite population size. In this paper, we will describe Bayesian and non‐Bayesian approaches for the reliability demonstration test based on the samples from a finite population. The Bayesian method is an approach that combines prior experience with newer test data in the application of statistical tools for reliability quantification. When test time and/or sample quantity is limited, the Bayesian approach should be considered. In this paper, a non‐Bayesian reliability demonstration test is considered for both finite and large population cases. The Bayesian approach with ‘uniform’ prior distributions, Polya prior distributions, and sequential sampling is also presented. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.