Regression Analysis of Repairable Systems Reliability

The regression model for survival analysis introduced by Cox (1972) has had major impact on the biometry field. It is surprising, therefore, that Cox’s model, which is equally applicable to the reliability of nonrepairable items, has almost never been applied to such problems. This model has recently been extended to the analysis of multiple events, such as recurring infections experienced by a single subject, by Prentice, Williams and Peterson (1981), (PWP 1981). Some modifications to the PWP model are useful for optimum application to reliability problems but basically their model applies to repairable systems by simply replacing words like “infections” with “repairable failures.”