AbstractA linear consecutively‐connected system consists of N linear ordered positions at which statistically‐independent multistate elements with different characteristics are allocated. Each element can provide propagation of a signal it receives from the previous positions to the next few positions. Each element can have different states determined by a number of adjacent nodes receiving the signal directly from this element. The signal retransmission process is associated with delays. The system fails if the signal generated at the first position (source) cannot reach the Nth position (receiver) within a specified time. An algorithm based on the universal generating function method is presented in this paper for determination of reliability of the linear consecutively‐connected system with delays. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.