Modeling of the Automatic Testing Process of Electronic Control Units in the Automotive Industry

Abstract

The scientific paper presents an original contribution regarding the modelling of the automatic EOL (End of Line) testing process of the Electronic Control Units (ECU) in the production flow in the automotive industry, by implementing the parallel testing algorithm to reduce the processing time at the related process station. This modelling operation for optimization must be implemented without affecting the quality of the automated functional testing process and is necessary for the application of the Kanban method in the automotive production flow. The process modelling begins with the analysis of the traditional execution time for each ECU input or output pin and continues with the development of a parallel test algorithm in which the test time for a single ECU is substantially decreased. By reducing the processing time of a station in the production flow, in this case at the EOL test station, a significant improvement in the capacity of the assembly line is achieved, which translates into cost savings at the resource level. The last part of the paper highlights the results obtained from the modelling of the process in order to optimize it and presents our conclusions developed in this case study.

Modelling the Interwoven Parallel Testing Process in the Automotive Industry

“…The new proposed test algorithm brings additional cycle time for interwoven parallel testing because several groups of parallel tests must be executed. From [1] it follows that in parallel testing, where all inputs are tested in parallel, the test lasts 1.1 seconds.…”

“…In this case, the output pins must also be analyzed from the point of view of short circuit faults. As in the parallel test algorithm described in [1], all the electrical loads are connected on the output lines of the DUT and then by the CAN (Controller Area Network) command, all the outputs are deactivated at once. Then, on each individual output, the voltage at its terminals is measured and compared with the requirements of the test specifications.…”

“…On the other hand, when testing the outputs in parallel, the test algorithm is efficient from a qualitative point of view and the speed of performing the tests. The advantage of the parallel testing algorithm of the inputs and the outputs was demonstrated in [1].…”

“…Testing the interwoven parallel group 1 is similar to the parallel testing of the inputs in [1]. In the first phase, the stimuli on inputs X3-1, X3-3, X3-5, X3-7, X3-9, X3-11, X3-13, X3-28, X3-30, X3-32 and X3-34 are disabled, in other words, they are set to the OFF state, as in figure 10.…”

“…The authors, in the paper "Modelling of the automatic testing process of electronic control units in the automotive industry", describe in detail the optimized test algorithm, where all inputs and outputs are grouped together and tested in parallel [1]. This algorithm comes to support the paper "Contributions to the modeling of manufacturing processes for the implementation of the Kanban methodology in the automotive industry" in which the authors present a modeling of the manufacturing processes for the implementation of the Kanban methodology by optimizing the processing time at the EOL test station [2].…”