Non Parametric RDA MCF Example

This example appears in the Non-Parametric Recurrent Event Data Analysis article.

A health care company maintains five identical pieces of equipment used by a hospital. When a piece of equipment fails, the company sends a crew to repair it. The following table gives the failure and censoring ages for each machine, where the + sign indicates a censoring age.

$$\begin{matrix} Equipment ID & Months \\ \text{1} & \text{5, 10, 15, 17+} \\ \text{2} & \text{6, 13, 17, 19+} \\ \text{3} & \text{12, 20, 25, 26+} \\ \text{4} & \text{13, 15, 24+} \\ \text{5} & \text{16, 22, 25, 28+} \\ \end{matrix}\,\!$$

Estimate the MCF values, with 95% confidence bounds.

Solution

The MCF estimates are obtained as follows:

$$\begin{matrix} ID & Months ({{t}_{i}}) & State & {{r}_{i}} & 1/{{r}_{i}} & {{M}^{*}}({{t}_{i}}) \\ \text{1} & \text{5} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{0}\text{.20} \\ \text{2} & \text{6} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{0}\text{.20 + 0}\text{.20 = 0}\text{.40} \\ \text{1} & \text{10} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{0}\text{.40 + 0}\text{.20 = 0}\text{.60} \\ \text{3} & \text{12} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{0}\text{.60 + 0}\text{.20 = 0}\text{.80} \\ \text{2} & \text{13} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{0}\text{.80 + 0}\text{.20 = 1}\text{.00} \\ \text{4} & \text{13} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{1}\text{.00 + 0}\text{.20 = 1}\text{.20} \\ \text{1} & \text{15} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{1}\text{.20 + 0}\text{.20 = 1}\text{.40} \\ \text{4} & \text{15} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{1}\text{.40 + 0}\text{.20 = 1}\text{.60} \\ \text{5} & \text{16} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{1}\text{.60 + 0}\text{.20 = 1}\text{.80} \\ \text{2} & \text{17} & \text{F} & \text{5} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{1}\text{.80 + 0}\text{.20 = 2}\text{.00} \\ \text{1} & \text{17} & \text{S} & \text{4} & {} & {} \\ \text{2} & \text{19} & \text{S} & \text{3} & {} & {} \\ \text{3} & \text{20} & \text{F} & \text{3} & \text{0}\text{.33} & \text{2}\text{.00 + 0}\text{.33 = 2}\text{.33} \\ \text{5} & \text{22} & \text{F} & \text{3} & \text{0}\text{.33} & \text{2}\text{.33 + 0}\text{.33 = 2}\text{.66} \\ \text{4} & \text{24} & \text{S} & \text{2} & {} & {} \\ \text{3} & \text{25} & \text{F} & \text{2} & \text{0}\text{.50} & \text{2}\text{.66 + 0}\text{.50 = 3}\text{.16} \\ \text{5} & \text{25} & \text{F} & \text{2} & \text{0}\text{.50} & \text{3}\text{.16 + 0}\text{.50 = 3}\text{.66} \\ \text{3} & \text{26} & \text{S} & \text{1} & {} & {} \\ \text{5} & \text{28} & \text{S} & \text{0} & {} & {} \\ \end{matrix}\,\!$$

Using the MCF variance equation, the following table of variance values can be obtained:

Using the equation for the MCF bounds and $${{K}_{5}} = 1.644\,\!$$ for a 95% confidence level, the confidence bounds can be obtained as follows:

$$\begin{matrix} ID & Months & State & MC{{F}_{i}} & Va{{r}_{i}} & MC{{F}_} & MC{{F}_} \\ \text{1} & \text{5} & \text{F} & \text{0}\text{.20} & \text{0}\text{.032} & 0.0459 & 0.8709 \\ \text{2} & \text{6} & \text{F} & \text{0}\text{.40} & \text{0}\text{.064} & 0.1413 & 1.1320 \\ \text{1} & \text{10} & \text{F} & \text{0}\text{.60} & \text{0}\text{.096} & 0.2566 & 1.4029 \\ \text{3} & \text{12} & \text{F} & \text{0}\text{.80} & \text{0}\text{.128} & 0.3834 & 1.6694 \\ \text{2} & \text{13} & \text{F} & \text{1}\text{.00} & \text{0}\text{.160} & 0.5179 & 1.9308 \\ \text{4} & \text{13} & \text{F} & \text{1}\text{.20} & \text{0}\text{.192} & 0.6582 & 2.1879 \\ \text{1} & \text{15} & \text{F} & \text{1}\text{.40} & \text{0}\text{.224} & 0.8028 & 2.4413 \\ \text{4} & \text{15} & \text{F} & \text{1}\text{.60} & \text{0}\text{.256} & 0.9511 & 2.6916 \\ \text{5} & \text{16} & \text{F} & \text{1}\text{.80} & \text{0}\text{.288} & 1.1023 & 2.9393 \\ \text{2} & \text{17} & \text{F} & \text{2}\text{.00} & \text{0}\text{.320} & 1.2560 & 3.1848 \\ \text{1} & \text{17} & \text{S} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ \text{2} & \text{19} & \text{S} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ \text{3} & \text{20} & \text{F} & \text{2}\text{.33} & \text{0}\text{.394} & 1.4990 & 3.6321 \\ \text{5} & \text{22} & \text{F} & \text{2}\text{.66} & \text{0}\text{.468} & 1.7486 & 4.0668 \\ \text{4} & \text{24} & \text{S} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ \text{3} & \text{25} & \text{F} & \text{3}\text{.16} & \text{0}\text{.593} & 2.1226 & 4.7243 \\ \text{5} & \text{25} & \text{F} & \text{3}\text{.66} & \text{0}\text{.718} & 2.5071 & 5.3626 \\ \text{3} & \text{26} & \text{S} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ \text{5} & \text{28} & \text{S} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ \end{matrix}\,\!$$

The analysis presented in this example can be performed automatically in Weibull++'s non-parametric RDA folio, as shown next.



Note: In the folio above, the $$F\,\!$$ refers to failures and $$E\,\!$$ refers to suspensions (or censoring ages). The results, with calculated MCF values and upper and lower 95% confidence limits, are shown next along with the graphical plot.