Developing Modular Factory Test Equipment Used For Space Based Products

It is not uncommon to find that test development companies have unique approaches to developing their test equipment. This can stem from ad-hoc to a very detailed and rigorous approach. Often the former can lead to inconsistent and costly design methodologies. The following paper contains an approach to developing modular test equipment for space products and can be analogous to other product types. Creating a common approach in a business can yield benefits to cost, schedule, and technical execution. A standard approach from decomposing test requirements from a product requirements specification and applying these requirements to the test equipment needs will be illustrated. The benefits of a well-defined strategy including manufacturing and testability will be discussed. The test equipment requirements will be implemented and, thus, verified and validated for factory acceptance testing of a product. A use case will be walked through in this paper to provide the reader with an example.