Whirlpool Corporation is one of the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, with annual sales of over $12 bilion, 68,000 employees, and nearly 50 manufacturing and technology research centres around the globe. The company markets Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Brastemp,Bauknecht, Consul and other major brand names to consumers in more than 170 countries.The company has remained a global leader by continualy investing in new research and by maintaining a global procurement, product development and information technology structure which reduces costs, improves efficiencies and provides a continuous stream of relevant innovation to consumers.Inspired by bold innovations and designs, customers around the globe trust Whirlpool to make their lives easier.

Customers know that when they buy a Whirlpool product, they are investing in an appliance that wil help them manage their time and their home more efficiently. This process of continual improvement occurs not just in design, but at every level, including the manufacturing and testing of assemblies.The manufacturing of microwave ovens takes place in Norrköping,Sweden, just outside the capital Stockholm.

The company boasts one of the largest microwave oven manufacturing centres in Europe.The technology may be wel established, but in markets which demand greater quality at lower cost and with increasing innovation in design and performance, Whirpool's Process Engineering Manager, Perry Ericsson is tasked with finding new ways of manufacturing at lower cost without compromising quality..We manufacture al built-in microwave ovens here in Sweden which comprises two families of ovens, including a very high spec. twin oven. Each oven includes a power and control sub-system, cooling system and the main processor assembly which includes variouswe face include increasing density,regular changes in complex components such as processors and flash memory and the need to keep costs down..The company.s previous test platform became obsolete several years ago and without parts or support, it was apparent that a complete change of test strategy would be needed. After some research, Whirlpool turned to another pioneer in technology,Digitaltest.Based in Germany but with bases throughout Europe and the USA, Digitaltest is a worldwide leader in advanced hardware and softwaretesting solutions for electronics manufacturers.

The company offers a range of test solutions and specialises in mixed test capabilities platform. The MTS30 system opens new functional test capabilities which are particularly suited to Whirpool.s needs. Through local agent, Uptech, Whirpool were able to conduct a detailed study of its future test needs. Having a local specialist enabled Whirlpool to demand, and receive, fast updates and software support that would otherwise have taken much longer.This alone was a major factor in the company.s decision to adopt the MTS30 platform.

Originaly we wanted to replace our previous Philips test systems with new products,. says Ericsson,.But Uptech convinced us to re-use the tables and provided an adpatation service which has saved many thousands of euros. As wel as fitting the system into the existing tables so that fixtures could be reused (more than 50 individual fixtures which could have cost many thousands to replace), Uptech added I/O cards for power testing, new cable harnesses and solved issues over isolation of high voltages when testing each unit at the end of production..The MTS30 was retrofitted to the tables and ful digital and frequency analysis modules fitted to create the required platform. The whole process took only a few weeks to complete. Annika Rydgren is one of the team.shighly experienced process engineers and looks after the software including test programming. She was delighted to be able to work with Visual Basic 6,under a Windows software environment, which is faster and far more flexible than traditional test programming environments. keeping up with the latest microprocessors and new components, especialy surface mount components,. says Rydgren. .For this, speed of programming is vital. Digitaltest.s CITE software helps greatly by supporting a much wider range of components. We can take data direct from the Bil of Materials (BOM) and translate this into our test environment, which saves a huge amount of time when new components are introduced.. Other options, like the integration of National Instruments Test Modules into the system also proved valuable. End-of-line tests such as high voltage, leak current and control/display tests can be performed faster and more accurately with an integrated system of this kind.The Digitaltest MTS30 system together with market leading software can be seen as a state-of-the-art global solution for electronic manufacturers who need to achieve the shortest possible time-to-market in a globaly competitive market.Speaking of the support received from Digitaltest and its local agent,Uptech, Ericsson says, .Swedish manufacturers maintain a very high level of technical competence and we always demand the latest software tools and product developments. Digitaltest.s system exceeded our expectations in this respect. We now have state-of-the-art technology which is fast and adaptable, with local software support and maintenance that we can rely on for many years to come. There have been problems to overcome, but we are very happy with the new system and look forward to instaling new systems in the future.