Jak lider rynku ATE, Teradyne, zoptymalizował procesy pozyskiwania komercyjnych komponentów

The Background

Founded in 1960 and headquartered in Boston, Teradyne is an automatic test equipment (ATE) designer and manufacturer whose clients include some of the most high-profile names in the technology, electronics, and wireless communications sectors, including IBM, Samsung, and Qualcomm. Teradyne has the singular distinction of being the world's largest supplier of semiconductor testing equipment, and designs and develops a broad portfolio of products for logic, RF, analog, power, mixed-signal, and memory technologies. The company's LitePoint line of testing equipment, meanwhile, provides advanced solutions for a wide range of connectivity systems, with a focus on ensuring the consistency and reliability of next-generation wireless devices and cutting time to market for its large-scale enterprise customers.

In addition to its standing as one of the foremost ATE organizations in the world, Teradyne also oversees a robotics division that encompasses Universal Robotics and Mobile Industry Robotics (MiR). Though operated independently, these companies collectively offer a comprehensive array of sophisticated automation products, from collaborative robotics and autonomous mobile robots to the motion control software that allows engineers to manipulate machine components with the highest possible degree of precision.

The Challenge

Shirley Loaiciga works as Process Coordinator and a Business Analyst in Teradyne's offices in Costa Rica. One of her largest responsibilities in that role is fielding requests from Teradyne engineers asking for commercial parts to use in their manufacturing processes. "I am in charge of reviewing all the information" related to specific parts, Loaiciga said. This includes tasks like going over country of origin, confirming inventory availability, maintaining data sheets, EOL / HTS information, coordinating with suppliers. On any given day, Loaiciga might receive 80 or even 100 requests from the engineering department about specific components integral to their projects. Though she was accustomed to the workload, Loaiciga found that she was struggling with the software tool Teradyne was using at the time to research critical parts data. "Sometimes we received concerns [from the engineers] about the information on the tool," she said. Even when she would request more information from the platform, it "wasn't uploaded on time" to be useful to her coworkers.

In cases where Loaiciga wasn't able to confirm the requisite details about parts in a timely fashion, Teradyne relied on a separate team to conduct extensive reconnaissance work, reaching out to as many as five different manufacturers to confirm the specifics the engineering department needed. These intermittent slowdowns were a drag on Teradyne's operations. The company needed to do something different.

Solution

Teradyne decided that it needed to bolster its sourcing and procurement resources. Leadership identified Z2Data's Part Risk Manager as a platform capable of helping Teradyne achieve this objective. The overarching goal was for Part Risk Manager to consolidate and centralize the myriad of data the company's sourcing professionals needed to execute their jobs with maximum efficiency.

Result

Teradyne onboarded Part Risk Manager, and shortly thereafter Loaiciga began incorporating it into her day-to-day operations. The effect was immediate and decisive. Prior to the implementation of the Z2Data platform, it would take Loaiciga around 10 minutes to carry out the work necessary to fulfill each individual request from the company's engineers. But because Part Risk Manager gave her faster, more reliable access to critical component specifications—including compliance status, market availability, and lifecycle forecasts—she's now completing requests in half that time. "Now, it's taking around five minutes, because we have the information right away."

The Z2Data platform has cut down Loaiciga's time investment in each request by half, effectively doubling her efficiency. In the context of up to 100 requests per week, it represents a monumental shift in her capabilities and workflow.

Part Risk Manager has also freed up more of her professional bandwidth to focus on other aspects of her role, including carrying out failure analysis. The scope of the tool's benefits has extended beyond her purview. Teradyne has a team dedicated to monitoring all product change notifications (PCNs) and obsolescence information, and Part Risk Manager has given it faster, broader access to these highly delicate, time-sensitive developments. "Now with Z2Data, they get information more quickly and they can react more efficiently."