ASI Technologies, Inc. has recently completed the design and addition of computerized end-of-line testing to all of our assembly lines. This completes the corporate goal established two years ago.

"We wanted a more accurate means to evaluate our products and their capabilities," manufacturing engineer Liam Larkin said.

One reason end-of-line testing is advantageous is because it eliminates subjectivity.

"It proves that a given unit will operate within a band of tolerance," engineering intern Matt Hoffman said.

Our two-year-old motor test stand

Another reason is that it gives hard numbers to each and every unit that gets shipped from ASI.

"It allows us to store statistics which can be evaluated to set standards where none formerly existed," Larkin said.

The proposal for computerized end-of-line testing was conceived because we had two different types of motors that were very similar.  The main difference in these motors is that they spun in opposite directions. It would be very easy to confuse the two and send them to the wrong customers. Therefore, we made the decision to implement end of line testing to prevent any possible mistakes across our complete product line.

An engineer working on the test stand

The first test stand to be installed was the motor test stand. It was implemented in August 2010. The Mark 400 transaxle test stand and the right angle drive test stand were put into service in August 2011. This month, the remaining lines (including stairlift drives, wheel drives, heavy duty transaxles, and custom transaxles) got a new mobile test stand. This stand is capable of testing any of our completed products.

"With the exception of the motor test stand, they are all fairly similar," Hoffman said.

Our new mobile test stand

One of the challenges of putting the test stands into operation was working with the data acquisition devices in a manufacturing environment.

"The sensitivity makes it difficult to get a constant reading," Hoffman said.

Ultimately, end-of-line testing will allow us to become a better, more reliable vendor.

"[End-of-line testing] gives the customer peace of mind and shows them, in a concrete, quantitative way, how ASI is controlling the quality of their products," Larkin said.