SKIDATA is a worldwide leader in access solutions and revenue management for parking facilities, stadiums, amusement parks, airports, mountain destinations and more. Based in Salzburg, Austria, the globally active company currently employs 1600 people and develops complete solutions by partnering with electronics manufacturing companies. SKIDATA relies on precision manufacturing to deliver high-quality electronics at scale. But as product complexity have grown, so did the challenge of maintaining visibility and speed in their test and production processes.
The Challenge: Limited Test Visibility and Slow Issue Resolution
Over the last 10 years, data control and deeper analytics have become increasingly important for SKIDATA. For moderate and minor errors, the company insists on having continuous and accurate real-time updates to maintain control across the complete process and monitor relevant manufacturing and testing information.
SKIDATA’s test engineers faced a familiar challenge: They only had access to basic key figures like First Pass Yield and basic test error analysis. But this was proving difficult as the associated serial numbers had to be extracted via Power BI. Turning that data into insight was time-consuming. Accessing relevant information often meant jumping between systems, manually digging through logs, or relying on outdated reports.
The result? Slow problem-solving and missed opportunities to optimize production.
So the test engineers at SKIDATA were looking for a new test data management solution.
”We needed something more intuitive—something that could give us a clear, fast overview and let us act on issues immediately
Test Engineer, SKIDATA
The Solution: WATS for Real-Time Test Data and Drill-Down Analysis
SKIDATA’s lightbulb moment came when they first saw WATS’ analysis capabilities. While the initial idea was to only track their test stations, set test limits, and create a repair database – they found that WATS had far greater capabilities.
The systems delivered quick analysis functionality, also displayed various problems and errors, within a very short time frame.
Together, WATS and SKIDATA began implementing prototypes and converting old data. In parallel with this, SKIDATA also connected current test stations to WATS using their internal data format. This meant that there was no need for SKIDATA to change their own platform or test sequencer.
The Results: Faster Problem-Solving Times
SKIDATA was soon up and running with WATS. They now had the ability to detect test values and determine the root cause of any problems in just one minute. This was a huge improvement. With their previous system they had to export data to Excel and compare columns – which took well over 30 minutes.
SKIDATA now has immediate access to the manufacturing and testing insights they need – across all of their plants. This new, improved way of looking at test data allows them to plan for maintenance effectively. They can now see all defects as they happen and fix problems within an hour.
Thanks to WATS, their production keeps running smoothly – while saving money and increasing product quality.
