TestProNews Q1 - 2005
The Evolution of Test Systems into the Enterprise
New tools made possible by emerging technologies are expanding the automated test
revolution. Decades ago manual test predominated. Fueled by products such as National
Instrument's
LabVIEW and TestStand,
automated test emerged, revolutionizing the test industry. With the increased speed
and ease of automated test, engineers suddenly had more data stored than ever before
- and it was often spread across geographic locations.
Today, enterprise test (Figure 1) is solving these test data management (TDM) challenges
through new tools that do not replace, but instead build upon the advantages of
automated test. Enabled by database, networking and Internet technologies, these
new TDM tools provide easy access to data and reports across all groups and locations.
With TDM systems that leverage these enterprise technologies, engineering managers
now have easy real-time access to the information necessary to make critical business
decisions. Enterprise test saves time and money by shifting resources from test
procedures and data organization to process and product improvement.
Manual Test
Before the emergence of automated test, labor-intensive hand testing was the only
option. Manual test involves the time-consuming process of a person manually setting
up instrumentation, taking measurements, and recording the results on paper or entering
the test data into a computer. Accessing data, analyzing results and generating
reports to improve the design or manufacturing processes is labor intensive and
time-consuming. Manual test is also dependent upon the skill of the person performing
the test, which leads to quality, productivity, and turnover risk problems. And
as the number of tests or quantity of products grows, the labor and its associated
costs increase linearly. Because manual testing leverages only traditional stand-alone
instrumentation technology, it is usually very inefficient.
Figure 1: Enterprise test provides engineering managers with easy access to the information necessary to make critical business decisions. |
Automated Test
With the ubiquity of the PC, automated test emerged, replacing most outmoded manual
test systems. Using the PC, instrumentation, and test software, automated test required
little to no operator intervention. Tedious, repetitive test and measurement tasks
were now PC-driven, with tests being executed at significantly faster rates and
with greater precision than possible with human operator driven manual test.
The automated test revolution shifted the concentration of testing effort and skill
away from expertise in manually performing the test to expertise in developing the
test. Test became more efficient and cost effective. Companies could now scale the
number of tests and the number of test stations without also simultaneously increasing
the number of operators needed to execute the tests. Off-line engineering analysis,
visualization and report generation tools such as NI's DIAdem emerged to gather
and examine the results generated from the automated test station.
With the newfound ease of performing many measurements on many products, automated
test frequently generated enormous quantities of test data. As companies globalized
and downsized operations and as outsourcing of design and manufacturing increased,
test data results became distributed, often spread across geographic locations and
often within different companies.
With the advent of automated test, companies were able to create large quantities
of test data more efficiently and economically than ever before. But difficulty
accessing, organizing, aggregating, analyzing and reporting on the data often left
companies without the ability to effectively turn the data into actionable information
they could use as a competitive advantage. This often hidden information is necessary
in order to make critical business decisions that would reduce costs, increase product
quality, and get products to market faster.
Enterprise Test
Building on the advantages of automated test, enterprise test automates the tasks
of organizing, finding, and reporting on test data across multiple test stations
(Figure 2). A key component of enterprise test is test data management (TDM), made
possible by enterprise TDM tools such as VI Technology's
Arendar.
With TDM, all groups involved with product design, validation, manufacturing or
service have easy, real-time access to test data and reports across all company
locations.
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Figure 2: Enterprise test builds on the technologies of manual and automated test by adding today's latest TDM, database, web, networking and Internet technologies to test systems. (An example of a tool using each technology is shown in parenthesis.) |
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With enterprise test, automated test systems first execute design and manufacturing
tests. The TDM system then sends results to an enterprise database using fail-safe
data transfers. Once in the TDM database, engineers and managers access real-time
test data and reports, which allows them to take action to improve their product
designs and processes. Design groups analyze analog data, digital data, waveform
data, component characterization and pass/fail results. Manufacturing groups analyze
yield reports, SPC reports, and defect reports. Design and manufacturing use this
real-time information to quickly identify trends and correlate test results between
the two groups.
Enterprise test further shifts the concentration of effort away from managing and
reporting on test data toward the identification of actions necessary to improve
products and processes (Figure 3). Now a company can scale many tests, in many locations,
distributed across many companies as desired without also linearly increasing the
test or data management effort.
Figure 3: Adding TDM to create an enterprise test system reduces the time and skill required to execute, manage, analyze and report on data so that your organization can focus on product and process improvements. |
Conclusion
As test evolves, companies are able to cull more valuable information in less time
through further automation of more of the test process. Manual test leverages only
instrumentation technologies and offers no automation. Automated test leverages
PC and instrumentation technologies to automate test execution and reporting on
a per-station basis. Enterprise test extends automated test and leverages databases,
networking, Internet, PC and instrumentation technologies to automate testing, data
collection, analysis and global reporting. With the evolution of test systems into
the enterprise, the value-added skill in the company moves from the persons performing
tests and collating data, to the persons developing the tests systems and making
key decisions to improve the company's products. Valuable time previously spent
running tests and managing data can now be used to take action to improve the company's
products and processes.
Ask the Expert
Email questions concerning this article to:
expert.testpronews@vi-tech.com
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Read about the latest information for integrating automated test systems throughout the enterprise. |
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