Doomsday ATE to distributed measurement blocks

Cost of Test, ATE utilization, floor space, flexibilityhellipthe list goes on and on of the issues the DoD and their primes are continually trying solve in the realm of Test. Tools like 6-Sigma and Lean have moved this effort forward dramatically over the past decade but has been primarily focused at taking inefficiencies out of the current strategy of test. It´s now time to look at an entirely different approach, one outside the industry but with all the complexities that are inherent to the Aerospace and Defense world. This paper will walk through the process of moving from a doomsday ATE test model to that of a distributed measurement model, similar to those that are used in commercial applications. It will show how Cost of Test, utilization, floor space, flexibility and more can be achieved.