Vinogradov (1973) used the Laplace transform to characterize the IFR class of life distributions and later Block and Savits (1980) extended the characterization to the main reliability classes. Here we use the same transform again to characterize the continuous time renewal equation and some properties of its solution.

In this paper we consider parallel and series systems, the components of which can be ‘improved'. The ‘improvement' consists of supplying the components with cold or hot standby spares or by allotting to them fixed budgets for minimal repairs. A fixed total resource of spares or minimal repairs is available. We find the optimal allocation of the resource items in several commonly encountered settings.

Let Tx be the time it takes for a pure jump process, which starts at 0, to cross a threshold x > 0. Sufficient conditions on the parameters of this process under which Tx has increasing failure rate average (IFRA), increasing failure rate (IFR) or logconcave density (PF2) are identified. The conditions for IFRA are weaker than those of Drosen (1986). Sufficient conditions on the parameter of a pure jump process for Tx to the IFR or PF2 are not available in the literature.

If T = (T1, · ··, Tn) is a vector of random lifetimes then its distribution can be determined by a set λof multivariate conditional hazard rates. In this paper, sufficient conditions on λare found which imply that T is Block–Savits MIFRA (multivariate increasing failure rate average) or Savits MIFR (multivariate increasing failure rate). Applications for a multivariate reliability model of Ross and for load-sharing models are given. The relationship between Shaked and Shanthikumar model of multivariate imperfect repair and the MIFRA property is also discussed.