A study of the effects of mis-specification of the Weibull shape parameteron confidence bounds based on the Weibull-to-exponential transformation

Many authors of reliability texts and papers recommend or employ the Weibul l-to-exponential transformation for ease of use in testing hypotheses and i n constructing confidence intervals and bounds on the Weibull characteristi c value. In making this transformation, it is assumed that the Weibull shap e parameter is fixed and known. Our research shows that if this parameter i s mis-specified by an amount as small as 0.10, very poor confidence interva ls and bounds will result. Hence, since the shape parameter is seldom known with perfect accuracy, based on this and other research, the use of this t ransformation is not recommended. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd .