An interesting problem in reliability is to determine the optimal burn-in time.
In a previous work, the authors studied the solution of such a problem under a particular cost structure.
It has been shown there that a key role in the problem is played by a function ρ, representing the reward coming from the use of a component in the field. A relevant case in this investigation is the one when ρ is linear.
In this paper, we explore further the linear case and use its solutions as a benchmark for determining the locally optimal times when the function ρ is not linear or
under a different cost structure