OEM says test-data system reduces stress of working with contract manufacturers
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 12/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
Terayon, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based modem manufacturer, recently discovered one pitfall of relying on contract manufacturers when customers started complaining that a particular unit wasn't consistently emitting ample power, even though it regularly passed all of the contract manufacturer's quality tests.
The problem was eventually tracked down, but only later did Terayon discover a software package that Yoram Rubin, senior director of process and test engineering, believes could have headed off the situation before it became a customer issue.
The package, SigmaQuest's SigmaSure, enables collecting and analyzing raw test data from various points within the supply chain.
"I wanted a tool that could take raw data and display it in a way that would let us readily identify and investigate any trends or characteristics we didn't understand," recalls Rubin. "[If we'd had] a tool like SigmaSure, the problem with the loss of power output could have been identified early enough for us to do something about it."
SigmaQuest CEO Nader Fathi says the dynamics of the contracting manufacturing business model are driving demand for SigmaSure. The rise of contract manufacturing means OEMs are losing a certain amount of control over their supply chains, Fathi maintains, adding that real-time access to test data is one of the first casualties of that loss.
SigmaSure allows all this test data, as well as information related to product returns, to be sent back to product design engineers "as these are the people who understand them best, and who are best positioned to comprehend the problems, and provide the required fix," says Fathi.
What's more, the information is real-time, says Husam Kal, director of operations at Proxim, a San Jose, Calif.-based wireless network equipment manufacturer that relies on contract manufacturers in both the U.S. and Taiwan. "Frequency drift is a perennial problem in the wireless world, calling for constant readjustments in tuning," he says. "We want to make sure we work well within the control limits, rather than constantly butting up against them."
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