Abstract
Purpose: After product development, a Reliability Demonstration Test(RDT) is performed to confirm that the target life has been achieved. In the RDT, there are cases where the test equipment cannot accommodate all samples. Therefore, this study considers a test method to most economically demonstrate the target life of the product at a certain confidence level when the sample size is larger than the capacity of the test equipment. Methods: If the sample size is larger than the capacity of the test equipment, test equipments may be added or the test time of individual samples may be increased. So the test method is designed to cover this situation with limited capacity. A zero-failure test method is applied as a test method to RDT. To minimize the cost, the test cost is defined and the cost function is obtained. Finally, we obtain the optimal test plan. Results: A zero-failure test method is designed when the sample size is larger than the capacity of the test equipment, and the expected total cost is derived. In addition, the process of calculating the appropriate sample size, test time, and number of test equipment is illustrated through an example, and the effects of model parameters to the optimal solutions are investigated numerically. Conclusion: In this paper, we study a zero-failure RDT with test equipment that has limited capacity. The expected total cost is derived and the optimal sample size, test time, and number of test equipment are determined to minimize the expected total cost. We also studied numerical examples and for further studies, we can relax some restrictions in the test model and optimize the test method.