Like most organizations, public or private, Hiller Measurements is driven to produce more value, faster and leaner than ever before, while improving overall quality. How do you do that? For many, the answer seems to be “you can’t,” which becomes the assumed reality until a single organization proves otherwise.

We’re not waiting for someone else to disrupt our industry.

Today, we announced Proteus RFSim, a model-based design tool for evaluating real-world performance of complex RFIUs using digital-twin design.

Today we announced the Proteus Design Center, a digital portal that brings Hiller Measurements and client teams together to collaboratively design test system architectures using industry 4.0 technology in the cloud quickly.

Since 2017, Hiller Measurements has been humbled by extraordinary growth in our business, as our willingness to address complex power, RF, and mixed signal test system design aligned with robust demand for those services from some of the largest mission-critical product companies in the world.

Humbled is an entirely appropriate term for this growth in our case as we’ve both enjoyed our acceleration in test system market share and been challenged as we’ve scaled our operation and capabilities.  

At times during the process, we’ve had to face sobering realities such as discovering idiosyncrasies we could live with as a small team but no longer could at scale, and subtle process inefficiencies when we were a small team that became enormous opportunities for improvement as we grew.

Today, we announced ProteusRF, the first of several platforms to take advantage of the Hiller Measurements Flow Control (HMFC) process. With ProteusRF, we can design an RFIU in hours and manufacture, test, and ship a first article in as little as four weeks from acceptance of an order.  

This blog post outlines of how Hiller Measurements is (or in some cases, is planning to) implement “Quality at Speed” in the software organization, as well as a description of exactly what that means. Some of these ideas have come from various books over the years, others are my own. I’m not going to attribute all of them individually but let me know if you find something particularly brilliant and I’ll figure out which of the books it came from.

What is an acceptable level of risk you are willing to take? Would you consider base jumping for the first time? Or are you like me and only interested in binge watching others do it on YouTube? Last year, did you fly on commercial airlines, and if so, did that make you nervous? How about today, while we search for a “new normal” due to COVID-19?

In ancient Rome, if a soldier performed admirably in battle, he received his normal pay plus an additional coin. This one was unique, though. It was minted with the insignia of the Legion from which it came. Most soldiers kept these unique coins, rather than spend them, as a special reminder of their service and membership in the force they were part of.

In late 2019, Hiller Measurements re-imagined the test system design and manufacturing process with Hiller Measurements Flow Control (HMFC), to disrupt the entire customer experience of outsourcing the design and manufacture of functional test systems and deliver a level of quality in design and speed of delivery not seen in our industry. As we embark into the second half of 2020, we are applying HMFC 1.0, with more “Quality at Speed” coming soon in future revisions.