Estimating the point availability with right-censored data

The point availability of a one-unit system at a specified time is defined as the probability that the component is operating at that time. When both operating time and repair time are subject to random (right) censorship, we propose an asymptotic nonparametric approach for constructing confidence intervals for the point availability of the system. The technique is based on the fact that a product limit estimator converges to a Gaussian process. The method is also extended to finding confidence intervals for the point availability of a complex system using the delta-Method. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.