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TechWaTch
Curing Common Test Equipment Headaches, A Comprehensive Approach
By Paul McNamara, founder and CEO, The Sente Group, Suwanee, GA E
ngineers everywhere are under increasing pressure to get products to market quickly.
They shouldn’t be wasting time tracking down test equipment or dealing with internal bureaucracies related to test. Yet these hindrances remain the order of the day for many engineers. Too often, high-tech electronics
companies lack a comprehensive, and coherent system for managing their test resources. There’s no way to know where any given piece of equipment is at any given time or if people will show up when they are scheduled to conduct tests. Meanwhile, bureau- cratic procedures that may be intend- ed to help actually hamper. Often, the problem stems from optimization of one value stream without regard for connected, more important value streams.
Flawed Measurement Methods In high-tech industries in partic-
ular, utilization of test equipment runs as low as 6 percent and rarely higher than 20 percent. Flawed meas-
urement methods often either mask the severity of these utilization rates, or don’t measure utilization at all. For example, while many organizations implement bureaucratic property management systems, they don’t track utilization, demand, technical information or capacity. Ultimately, it all leads to too
many delays and dollars lost in many projects. However, therein lies a great opportunity. Improving resource uti- lization can help reduce capital spend- ing and associated costs by 50 to 75 percent while freeing up engineering staff to work on strategic projects. Companies that get it right bring in a lot more revenue with a lot less equip- ment.
So, why are so many companies
missing this important opportunity? And how can your company do a bet- ter job? Let’s take a closer look at the common missteps and appropriate solutions.
Bureaucratic Shortcomings Bureaucratic test equipment
management solutions focus on
symptoms and never get to the root cause of high costs and delays. When engineers lack confidence that they’ll have the equipment they need, when they need it, they tend to hoard equipment or schedule capacity “just in case” — regardless of the type of equipment. These behaviors ultimately re-
sult in more equipment on-hand than necessary, higher overhead costs as- sociated with maintaining the equip- ment and overall higher rates and lower competitiveness. By providing a more trustworthy solution, these habits will begin to drive lasting, positive change. To do so, you need a comprehen-
sive approach that includes not just software, but also support for all con- stituents involved in the process. A successful test resource management system begins with people from the many different functions participat- ing in the process with many differ- ent incentives. Their cooperation is essential to reduce unnecessary bar- riers and make test resource man- agement work effectively, delivering products faster and at a lower cost. In order to fully support a solu-
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tion, design engineers must see that it’ll make their lives easier. They must have a vision for the changes that need to be made, the part they must play and the positive outcomes the new processes will produce for them. It’s important to reinforce positive be- haviors by producing incentives, which also help to eliminate negative behavior.
Insufficient Integration Test equipment typically can be
grouped into three classes: redeploy- able general-purpose equipment, large unmovable “monuments” and unique/program-specific assets. But many projects require equipment from each of these categories, whe - ther it’s a vibration table to test prod- ucts, general purpose equipment to take measurements, or fixtures and cables to connect a unit-under-test to various pieces of equipment. If you don’t manage all of these components together, you risk delaying a project and keeping customers waiting — at a very high cost to both the customer and your company — due to a cable, fixture, breakout box or some other “low value asset” not being available when needed. To avoid this problem, an asset
management system must be inte- grated to control the coordination of all assets required for test. Although the practices for controlling equip- ment from one category to another may be different, the overarching fundamental processes should be co- hesive, coherent and fully integrated. This effort ensures that all of these assets come together smoothly
when the users need them. It also en- sures that when those users don’t need the equipment, it’s available for use by someone else.
Lack of Clear Incentives Managers, resource-manage-
ment practitioners, engineers, tech- nicians, and finance, property and purchasing personnel are all essen- tial to implementing and perpetuat- ing a TRM solution. But the right in- centives are often missing for all of these audiences. Without clear rea- sons to support a new asset manage- ment process, the key players are un- likely to rally around the changes. Facing all the stresses of a typical workday, people aren’t willing to take the time to adopt a new system, especially if they don’t see how they stand to gain from it, but rather see a risk to getting their jobs done. That’s why you must work to secure and sustain their support in four main ways:
l Align incentives with their inter-
do more? l
Target communications at their concerns: What’s in it for me? What’s my role in it? How will this make my job easier or allow me to
ests and the organization’s interests. l
April, 2012
and participate in the new process. l
Secure commitments to cooperate
Require accountability for process compliance, ensured by real-time measurements available to everyone.
For each audience, it’s important
to articulate their role and stake in the success of the program. For example, engineers should understand that the new system is about managing the tests in less time with far fewer headaches. Even with all these components
(incentives, roles, accountability) ad- dressed, it takes additional work to avoid having a new test equipment management program perceived as “yet another burdensome corporate ini- tiative.” Therefore, all messages should nest within an existing big-pic- ture objective. After all, as important as the
test function is to new product devel- opment and company growth, better test equipment management is mis- sion-critical. By having the right equipment available at the right time — without wasting time looking for equipment or having to deal with unwieldy bureaucratic burdens— de- sign engineers will be able to focus on administering tests promptly and properly and bringing great new products to market as quickly as pos- sible.
Contact: The Sente Group, 5400
Laurel Springs Pkwy, Ste 603, Suwanee, GA 30024 % 888-297-3683 E-mail:
PMcNamara@SenteGroup.com Web:
www.sentegroup.com r
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