The relevation model is a fundamental tool in reliability engineering for assessing the effectiveness of redundancy allocation in coherent systems. In this study, we address the problem of allocation of relevations for one or two nodes in a coherent system with independent components to enhance system reliability. We establish results concerning the usual stochastic and hazard rate orders for coherent systems. Moreover, we illustrate our findings with a range of examples and counterexamples. In addition, we conduct a simulation-based study and a real data analysis to further illustrate the application of our results. Lastly, we study the case of the minimal repair policy in detail.

In this paper we study the allocation problem of relevations in coherent systems. The optimal allocation strategies are obtained by implementing stochastic comparisons of different policies according to the usual stochastic order and the hazard rate order. As special cases of relevations, the load-sharing and minimal repair policies are further investigated. Sufficient (and necessary) conditions are established for various stochastic orderings. Numerical examples are also presented as illustrations.

We analyze the notion of ‘reliability prediction’ by studying in detail a key property that is tacitly assumed to make reliability prediction possible. The analysis leads in turn to a special type of point process for which the connection of future to past can be explicitly displayed. In this type of process, the semi-renewal process, all finite-dimensional distributions are completely determined by the distribution of the time to the first event in the process. The theory provides a heretofore unappreciated unification of the two most commonly used reliability prediction models for maintained systems, namely, the renewal and revival processes. We show that familiar results from renewal theory extend and generalize to semi-renewal processes.

In this note characterizations of the exponential distribution are discussed, based on a generalization of the lack of memory property. The result was motivated by the notion of ‘relevation of distributions' introduced by Krakowski (1973).