| Objectives | Background | Approach |
To construct a set of criteria and an assessment procedure to
evaluate electrical test laboratories which intend to provide
services as "Component Source Facilities."
Many electronic equipment suppliers have been using electrical test laboratories for evaluation of certain parts selection and management tasks. Some of these electrical test laboratories are now seeking to provide wider ranges of services to the equipment suppliers, in addition to electrical testing. The proposed additional services include creation of "preferred part lists," part qualification and quality assurance, assessment of manufacturing compatibility, creation of a test data warehouse, configuration control, and obsolescence management. However, many of these activities are beyond the areas of core competencies of the test laboratories. Hence, there is a need to develop a methodology to assess which test laboratories are capable of offering these specific services.
CALCE has extensive experience in developing assessment criteria for various members of the electronic product supply chain. CALCE has catalogued the data required to perform practical part manufacturer and part quality and integrity assessment. CALCE is also developing assessment criteria for contract manufacturers and printed wiring board manufacturers. In order to perform a test laboratory assessment, several issues should be considered, including:
CALCE has performed all the different levels of functions proposed by the "Component Source Facilities" for research purposes, and as services to the member companies. CALCE will form an initial set of assessment criteria for each of these activities based on its experience. These criteria will be assessed against the practices used by the "best-in-class" electrical test facilities to maintain the quality and integrity of the parts handled and processed by them.
We will investigate the methods that the laboratories follow to maintain the quality and integrity of the parts handled by them. We will also contact potential users of "Component Source Facilities" to determine what levels of quality and service they expect. The information received from the test laboratories and appropriate references will be analyzed and will be used to refine the initial set of criteria. Users of these criteria would be able to determine which services can be reliably outsourced to the "Component Source Facilities" without compromising the final product quality.