For a system with i.i.d. component lifetimes the Samaniego signature can be computed for instance from Boland’s formula, which requires the knowledge of every value of the associated structure function. We show how the signature can be computed more efficiently from the diagonal section of the...

Considering a semicoherent system made up of n components having i.i.d. continuous lifetimes, Samaniego defined its structural signature as the n-tuple whose kth coordinate is the probability that the kth component failure causes the system to fail. This n-tuple, which depends only on the...