Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to deal with a linear multi-state sliding window coherent system which generalizes the consecutive k-out-of-r-from-n:F system in the multi-state case. The system has n linearly ordered multi-state elements consisting of m parallel independent and identically distributed elements. Every element of the system can have two states: completely working or totally failed. The system fails if the sum of performance rate is lower than the given weight.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors proposed to compute the signature, MTTF and Barlow–Proschan index with the help of UGF technique of multi-state SWS which consists of m parallel i.i.d. components in each multi-state window.
Findings
In the present study, the authors have evaluated the signature reliability, expected lifetime, cost analysis and Barlow–Proschan index.
Originality/value
In this study, the authors have studied a linear multi-state sliding window system which consists of n ordered multi-state element, and each multi-state element also consists of m parallel windows. The focus of the present paper is to evaluate reliability metrices of the considered system with the help of signature from using the universal generating function.