Original Date: 04/28/1995
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

In an attempt to achieve high quality, reliable products at affordable cost, Lockheed Martin Electronics and Missiles (E&M) recently developed a test philosophy where every product delivered meets all customer requirements; failures are identified and repaired at the lowest level of assembly; testing is automated for maximum efficiency; and the test process is continually improved. This test philosophy has been applied to the areas of in-process testing, stress screening, acceptance testing, and the improvement program.

In the in-process testing effort, testing is conducted at all levels of assembly until the success rate warrants test elimination. Components are screened to ensure that only good material is allowed on the manufacturing floor. Testing is automated, where feasible, to reduce test time, and the number of different test systems is minimized. In stress screening, Lockheed Martin is attempting to induce failure of manufacturing defects before an assembly is delivered by subjecting it to thermal cycling, thermal shock, vibration, and testing for specification compliance. The company is using U.S. Air Force and Navy Environmental Stress Screening Guidelines (R&M 2000, NAVMAT P- 9492). In acceptance testing, the goal is to effectively meet customer requirements by validating all equipment and procedures and procedure traceability to requirements, apply configuration management to all test procedures and equipment, control the change process, and automate testing when possible. Finally, in the improvement program, Lockheed Martin is continuously reviewing test data for failure trends to remove root causes, improve quality, reduce cost, and react to trends before failure occurs. The test process is periodically reviewed for improvement to remove tests with a high success rate, reduce test time, and improve tests to eliminate failure at next level of assembly.

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