Improving Factory Acceptance Testing Process for Superior Customer Experience

Abstract

This thesis aims to improve the factory acceptance testing (FAT) process in the case company, with a specific focus on customer experience. The company is working to enhance its current process for managing and performing factory acceptance tests. It seeks to differentiate itself from other companies in the power management industry by offering exceptional customer service throughout the entire process. To address this challenge, the objective of this thesis is to identify improvement opportunities and propose initiatives for enhancing the FAT process.

This study looks at the current state of the FAT process in the case company. The analysis uses interviews with project engineering team members, the witness test specialist team lead, and the company’s internal documents. The results from the cur-rent state analysis, literature review, specific data from interviews with engineers and IT specialists, and collaboration meetings with the project engineering team help cre-ate an initial proposal. After validating the final proposal, an action plan for the next steps is suggested.

The findings of this thesis show that the FAT process has several weaknesses. These include communication with country sales offices, documentation of test results, and collecting customer feedback. The study results in a proposal with three parts: (1) au-tomating test result documentation with a computer-driven testing program, (2) inte-grating e-signature software for test script communication with country sales offices, and (3) developing customer experience survey questions for the HappyorNot system. This thesis helps the company improve the FAT process. After addressing these weaknesses, the company can handle future challenges with the recommended steps.