EMS firm finds that JTAG testing with ScanWorks pays for itself by saving "money, time and company resources."
Accelerated ROI: The ScanWorks JTAG system reduced troubleshooting time by 1,457 percent!
Because of the nature of its business, Reptron Manufacturing Services, an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company with its headquarters in Tampa, Fla., and a major manufacturing facility in Hibbing, MN, had to be certain that its investment in boundary-scan test equipment would not only generate a healthy return on investment, but it would do so over a very short period of time. The firm found its solution in ASSET’s ScanWorks boundary-scan test and in-system programming environment.
Reptron’s test engineering management had the perception that most electronic test techniques would involve expensive fixturing and tooling costs, as well as long test development cycles. And, as an EMS company, Reptron faced relatively short life spans for the products it manufactured. Moreover, many of the printed circuit boards (PCB) it assembled had limited physical access for testing purposes.
The difficulties faced by Reptron led the firm’s test engineers to spend an extraordinary amount of time troubleshooting and debugging PCBs. As a result, the firm was led to investigate boundary scan test technology and ASSET’s ScanWorks environment. To verify ScanWorks would have a rapid ROI, Reptron applied JTAG test and troubleshooting methods on two PCBs as part of a case study scenario. The results, summarized below, were quite convincing.
| Without Boundary Scan | With Boundary Scan | Savings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Test Time (hours) | 438 | 28.7 | 409.3 |
| Total Test/ Repair Costs | $32,850 | $2,149.50 | $30,700.50 |
| Test/Repair Costs per assembly: Case 1 | $606.12 | $38.52 | $567.60 |
| Case 2 | $630 | $5.6 | $624.64 |
| Notes: | Assemblies tested – 78 Assemblies shipped – 57 Assemblies in rework – 20 Assemblies scrapped – 1 Cost per hour to test and troubleshoot – $75 |
Conclusion: It’s ScanWorks!
The report compiled as a result of Reptron’s two case studies states: ” The ScanWorks test platform allowed us to interactively debug and diagnose failures that would normally only be detected on an in-circuit tester: open pins and traces, solder and copper shorts, defects under ball-grid ICs, and defective, wrong, or missing components. The boundary scan testing approach provided a mechanism to actively control signal levels independent of system clocking for purposes of debugging: this functionality is an extremely powerful feature of the system.”
