Solid advice to improve phone, tablet, speaker, headset and computer manufacturing.
Back in the good old days, testing a consumer device wasn’t necessarily an easy task, but it was definitely more straight forward. Every now and then you may hear a parent or grandparent wistfully remember that a TV was just a TV, and the phone was stuck to the wall. When those devices were tested, they were simply being tested for their one job. Those days are over.
Back in the present, if you have a device that only does one thing, it is simply inefficient. Consumer electronics must be able to tell you the weather, video chat and monitor your sleep quality. Technology is amazing, but there is certainly a lot of validation to be done. There are several tweaks manufacturers can make to ensure the test process is as efficient and cost effective as possible.
Just Automate, Already
Automated equipment with automated test sequences pays off across the board. When machines are responsible, the margin for error disappears. They work 10 times faster with 100% precision for perfect repeatability. Can the same be said for manual labor or manual inspection? This is particularly true in the case of mundane tasks like defect inspection. It is long and drawn out and it is hard for a person to stay motivated. That’s how mistakes happen…it’s human nature. Automated vision inspection is built for tasks like these.
Speaking of human nature, one myth about automation that needs to be dispelled is that it is all or nothing. A complete overhaul of a test setup can seem both intimidating and expensive when there is already a system in place. Sometimes, adding automation in stages or for only part of the process can accelerate manufacturing tremendously.
For consumer devices specifically, there are so many considerations to be made and well, buttons to be pressed. To have a machine push those buttons systematically and quickly opens the door to many other tasks a qualified team can manage instead. Moreover, by automating test sequences, you can manipulate the test sequences. As a product changes and grows, so can test limits using simple coding. To reset requirements or add new verifications there is no need to go back to the drawing board. Everything is there and ready to adapt and this is never more pertinent than in the case of consumer electronics.
Stop Buying New Equipment for Every Device
Generic or common core test stations are a game changer in the world of consumer electronics testing. These are the ultimate multi-taskers in the world of test. The key to a generic station is to gather all the expensive, common equipment and gather it into one base. Then by designing fixtures unique to each item type, they can be swapped in and out to accommodate multiple products. Often these cost a little more than a standalone station, but the investment quickly pays off for the long run. This flexibility is one massive benefit, but another is scalability. Generic stations grow or shrink with product demand. If one product is being phased out, all the equipment is there and ready to welcome a new one. By only investing in fixtures and new code, costs drop significantly, ramp up is minimal and you already have the equipment on-hand so there is no reason to worry about an unreliable supply chain.
Less is More – Different Teams Don’t need Different Equipment
Standardization tackles the biggest manufacturing enemy of all: Miscommunication. It thrives in environments where the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. When all employees are using the same equipment and are on the same page, the results speak for themselves. With minimal training, employees from around the world (or different departments) can support one another, either onsite or remotely. Stepping in and out of different scenarios becomes simple. This advantage is not only location-based, but product-based as well. With standardized equipment, all variants leverage the same core. This means that to get a new system up and running, very little will change. The software and GUI will already be familiar, and the new hardware will be minimal. As a result, training and ramp-up time decrease significantly.
Best practice would be to standardize these stations company-wide. By using the same equipment through R&D, manufacturing and repair, traceability is simple, and everyone is speaking the same language.
Don’t Wait Before it’s too Late: Preventive Maintenance
Planned preventive maintenance is a series of scheduled inspections and repairs that are performed on manufacturing assets to avoid problems down the road. By proactively giving machines the love they deserve, issues are found early and are fixed before disaster strikes…per your schedule.
There aren’t enough consumer electronics manufacturers that are taking a proactive approach to maintaining their manufacturing equipment. It is mostly believed that there isn’t enough time in the day, there is always something more important to do and things are working…why mess with it? These are all true, especially considering that preventive maintenance isn’t always the easiest process to set up. That said, we all know that anything worth doing isn’t always easy.
To execute preventive maintenance well, you will need a list of all the relevant equipment and their history. Have they broken down before? Where is the documentation? When does the warranty period end? Often, this information isn’t readily available, and most companies don’t have people standing by to take it on. But if this plan is created during test station development, the payoff is seen very quickly. That does not mean it is too late once the equipment is on the floor, it just takes it a little longer.
It is indeed worth the wait. When an asset is neglected, the problems become much worse and more expensive to deal with. By repairing a collection of smaller problems in a scheduled timeframe, system failures are significantly reduced along with unplanned downtime. Margins and profits remain as projected, instead of expensive spending on emergency labor and rush shipping.
Stop Ignoring your Data
Your manufacturing floor is speaking loud and clear if you are using the right smart data management software. It is important to track both products and assets. By consolidating your data and analyzing patterns of your products, you are given first-hand knowledge of what is going out to the field. By tracking asset patterns, you will see trends on how your floor is performing. If results suddenly start shifting a certain way, it is likely a consequence of a change within the assembly line, not the assembly itself. This can be easily followed up, knowing where your results are coming from; you are given the visibility to schedule preventive maintenance, avoiding bigger problems down the road. To really invest in improving manufacturing, the strongest foundation is built with data. By working with the right data, that will be the blueprint of where to go next.
For any questions on consumer electronic testing, please contact Averna.
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