Integration and test plans for complex manufacturing systems

Testing complex manufacturing systems, such as an ASML [ASML, 2006] lithographic machine, takes up to 45% of the total development time of a system. The problem of which tests must be executed in what sequence to ensure in the shortest possible test time that the system works, the test sequencing problem, was already solved by Pattipati [Pattipati et al., 1991; Pattipati and Alexandridis, 1990] for the diagnosis of systems during operation. Test sequencing problems during the development and manufacturing phases of systems, however, require a different approach than test sequencing problems during operation. In this paper, the test problem description and algorithms developed by Pattipati are extended to solve test sequencing problems for the development and manufacturing of manufacturing systems.