Distribution Analysis (Arbitrarily Censored Data)
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When your data consist of exact failures and a varied censoring scheme, including right-, left- and interval-censored data, your data is arbitrarily-censored. For general information on life data and censoring, see Distribution Analysis Data.

You can enter up to 50 samples per analysis. Minitab estimates the functions independently for each sample, unless you assume a common shape (Weibull) or scale (other distributions). All the samples display on a single plot, with different colors and symbols, which helps you compare the various functions between samples.

Minitab analyzes systems with one cause of failure or multiple causes of failure. For systems that have more than one cause of failure, see Multiple Failure Modes (Arbitrarily Censored Data).

Enter your data in table form, using a Start column and End column:

This data set illustrates tabled data. For observations with corresponding columns of frequency, see Using frequency columns.

When you have more than one sample, you can use separate columns for each sample. Alternatively, you can stack all the samples in one column, then set up a column of grouping indicators, which can be numbers or text. For an illustration, see Stacked vs. Unstacked data.