Bounds for the reliability functions of coherent systems with heterogeneous components

The computation of the reliability function of a (complex) coherent system is a difficult task. Hence, sometimes, we should simply work with some bounds (approximations). The computation of these bounds has been widely studied in the case of coherent systems with independent and identically distributed (IID) components. However, few results have been obtained in the case of heterogeneous (non ID) components. In this paper, we derive explicit bounds for systems with heterogeneous (independent or dependent) components. Also some stochastic comparisons are obtained. Some illustrative examples are included where we compare the different bounds proposed in the paper.