ITC: Globalization, validation synergy, and nanomaterials
Rick Nelson, Chief Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 10/30/2006 10:16:00 AM
Globalization and test, validation and test synergy, and nanomaterial device test were the topics of three daily International Test Conference invited addresses, presented by Greg Jordan from Cisco Systems, Siva Yerramilli from Intel, and Professor W. Robert Daasch from Portland State University, respectively.
From a test-engineering perspective, he said, that presented the problem of access. Test engineers at San Jose could no longer walk downstairs to the factory to fix yield problems, for example. The solution to the lack of physical access, he said, was to trust the CMs but to establish a system for verifying that CMs were performing optimally. “We wanted to see yield changes in real-time.”
To that end, the company deployed Autotest, an internally developed application that serves as a manufacturing-test framework. Autotest, he said, automates process and product flow to ensure process compliance, to eliminate test escapes, to capture process information, to verify product configurations, and to ensure product process traceability.
Autotest, he said, defines a standard test framework (with hubs in San Jose, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam) deployed across 22 CM sites, 17 Cisco sites, and 11 contract-repair sites, providing an identical user interface that provides access to data regarding the gamut of manufacturing, assembly, and test processes, including solder-paste deposition, x-ray inspection, in-circuit test, and battery date codes.
He cited some of the specific functions Autotest provides:
• consistent test-process control,
• remote support and real-time updates,
• customer configuration management,
• test version control and reporting,
• CM assembly test and repair data collection,
• brand-protection management (via special encrypted boards),
• component traceability.
• enterprise resource planning (ERP) interface,
• automated ECO management,
• product quality assurance,
• country of origin control, and
• Web-based data collection and reporting.
Autotest, he said, represents one language for 1000 or more test engineers, breaking down geographical, cultural, and political boundaries. It provides test-data access everywhere except on airplanes—but, he added, Autotest reduces the need for airplane trips.
As for test engineers themselves, he urged audience members to “embrace the global community, foster a global test-engineering community, leverage engineers everywhere, and overcome all barriers.”
He recommended that engineers look carefully at their place in tomorrow’s world and ask how they themselves can add value to serve their employers as well as advance their careers. He concluded by commenting that engineers have a social responsibility to use test as a universal language to promote global cooperation and the sharing of ideas.
(Next page: Validation and test synergy)
