
‘The Economics of Automatic Testing’ now in electronic versions
While the first edition focused on determining the optimum test strategy, on the financial justification of equipment and the development of a ROI for presentation to senior management, the second edition developed to show how test decisions affect the well-being of the entire company.
It includes a strong emphasis on the need for economic projections to be ‘life-cyle’ based so that the full impact of design, manufacturing, test and field service decisions become obvious. The creation of life-cycle economic models of the process, essential for understanding it fully and performing the analysis in a thorough manner, is covered along with examples and testing methods.
The book puts into clear perspective the critical influence that good testing decisions have on meeting these goals. As a result it highlights the importance and the contribution of good management of the test function to the overall performance of an enterprise. Nineteen years is a long time in electronics but the book remains up to date because it is not about technology, defect rates and labour rates that change rapidly. Instead, the book’s core concepts relate to business issues, engineering economics and calculation methods which have changed in only one respect—it has become more important than ever to use them.
More information at www.testeconomics.com
Access the blog at www.testeconomics.blogspot.ie for feedback and questions.
About the Author
Brendan Davis has worked in test and measurement since the early 1960’s. He joined the General Radio Company (later re-named GenRad) in 1966 and became involved with marketing automatic test equipment (ATE) a few years later. He regularly contributed articles to trade journals, presented papers at conferences, created seminar programs for GenRad (now part of Teradyne) and participated in a number of university programs on testing and quality issues.
