Situation: Several years ago a major Tier 1 electronics manufacturer used 30 traditional in-circuit testers (a mix of Agilent and Teradyne systems) to test an annual production volume exceeding 9 million boards. Recognizing that the systems were becoming too costly to support and that capabilities such as digital vector test were no longer required, the manufacturer gradually transitioned to CheckSum Low Cost in-circuit testers as new board types came on line.

Result: By 2006 production volume had increased 20% to more than 11 million boards per year. The test setup now consisted of 35 CheckSum Analyst Low Cost testers and 5 Agilents. Even as production volume grew, changing the ICT test strategy to Low Cost Test for the majority of board types allowed the manufacturer to reduce per board test cost from $0.20 per board to just over $0.08 a board--a savings of 60%. As shown in the bar chart below money was saved in all three areas: tester capital amortization costs, annual support costs and fixture/programming costs.