Efficient, not cheap
Rick Nelson, Chief Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 2/1/2005
Slew rate, bandwidth, adjacent-channel power—those are specs that may or may not apply to your test application, depending on whether your testing op amps, filters, or cell-phone transmitters. But there's one spec common to every product or process, and it's measured in dollars and cents.
| Read other articles from this issue:Table of contents, February 2005 Economies of scale, Cover story Test-system development: Do everything first Vision meets motion Simulate voice networks |
Whether you outsource test or handle it in house, you'll need to do a lot of planning. Of course, planning itself is expensive when you account for the value of the engineering hours spent on it, but in "Test-system development: Do everything first" (p. 33), Senior Technical Editor Martin Rowe reports that a group of test engineers described planning as necessary to avoid even more costly mistakes.
It's important to emphasize that "cost-efficient test" isn't the same as "cheap test." The latter suggests cutting corners, and that can lead to trouble. For example, "Vision meets motion" (p. 41) recounts a problem caused in a machine-vision system when a camera lens loosened, noting that the use of a more expensive industrial-grade lens with set screws would have been well worth the cost.
Sometimes "low cost" can equal "cost efficient," and "From little acorns grow" (p. 13) describes the benefits of a humble grommet. But initial low prices can often spell major costs later on. In Rowe's article, for example, engineers report that some companies try to push obsolete office computers into test systems. "It's just not worth it," says one. "The time cost of installing software into an old computer can outweigh the cost of a new one."
Amkor's Paransun sums it up: "Sometimes, customers lose sight of the overall cost and err in the direction of specifying a cheaper tester, and they end up paying more for it in the long run."
If you've been urged to cut corners that could ultimately lead to much higher costs, we'd like to hear about your experiences. In particular, Rowe is interested in hearing about efforts to shoehorn old computers into new test systems. Send your comments to him at mrowe@tmworld.com or to me at the e-mail address below.
Contact Rick Nelson at rnelson@tmworld.com
