An Integral Measure of Aging/Rejuvenation for Repairable and Non-repairable Systems

Abstract

This paper introduces a simple index that helps to assess the degree of aging or rejuvenation of a (non)repairable system. The index ranges from -1 to 1 and is negative for the class of decreasing failure rate distributions (or deteriorating point processes) and is positive for the increasing failure rate distributions (or improving point processes). The introduced index is distribution free.