A paperless system of reporting and analyzing field failure data for IFTE ATS

Data collection from complex systems is typically inefficient and inaccurate since it requires a certain degree of operator interaction. Sample Data Collection (SDC) is a well known method of collecting data in some government agencies. This can be a very cumbersome method requiring many man-hours and much dedication of the data collectors in filling out surveys. The US Army has developed a tool for its Integrated Family of Test Equipment (IFTE) which will replace this time and personnel intensive method with a real-time automated process which shall yield considerable cost savings and increase the accuracy of what is reported. Coupled with this reporting scheme are automated analyses, which are currently under development to satisfy the needs of the owners of the equipment under test. Benefits of this automation are numerous. Determining more accurate spares requirements, demonstrating/validating reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) values, and many more to be discussed. This automated approach is designed for the US Army's IFTE Automated Test Systems (ATS) which diagnoses and repairs its electronic military systems including, but not limited to, complex avionics, communications, combat, tracked vehicles, and missiles. There are no special requirements for computer equipment, as a 486 generation processor based personal computer is used currently with commercial software tools. This paper details the way the test data is automatically logged into electronic format, the system in place to collect this data, and possible ways to benefit from this technology using automated analyses-all paperless.