Remote factory acceptance testing adopted for new equipment
Ergopharm has adopted remote factory acceptance testing for new equipment, witnessing and accepting machines at the vendor's works over instrumented video links when travel was not possible.
Factory acceptance testing exists so that problems are found where they are cheap to fix — at the vendor, before shipment — rather than in a qualified area where every correction becomes a change control. Losing the ability to travel threatened to push that discovery downstream, which is the expensive direction.
“Remote witnessing is not the easy version. It needs more preparation, not less.”
Remote witnessing required more preparation than the physical version rather than less: test protocols agreed in full detail beforehand, camera positions defined for each test, instrument displays readable on screen, and a named witness on each side with authority to accept or reject. Anything that could not be assessed adequately at a distance was explicitly deferred to site acceptance rather than quietly passed.
The practice has been retained where it works, with on-site attendance reserved for the tests that genuinely require a person present.
Key facts
- Purpose
- Find equipment problems before shipment, not after qualification
- Required
- Protocols agreed in advance; defined camera and instrument views
- Deferred
- Tests not adequately assessable remotely, recorded as such
- Retained
- Where effective; site attendance where genuinely needed