Troubleshooting PC Boards.

ICAT was the original version of what has evolved into iTech.

ICAT (Intelligent Computer-Aided Troubleshooting), the most advanced fault finding system in the world, has been introduced at IVATEC's (part of the Telkom group of companies) Braamfontein Electronic Repair Center to assist technical staff to quickly identify faults on certain electronic cards. The repair center invested in ICAT to enable low skilled technicians to repair more complex electronic cards that would have been otherwise impossible and to allow highly skilled technicians to concentrate on more advanced repairs. Maintenance efficiency and productivity will also be increased significantly.

ICAT is the only system that allows the user to use model based reasoning as the basis for the diagnostics in addition to rule based guidance for navigation. All that ICAT requires is a functional block diagram and a basic knowledge of the test equipment being utilized to repair the system/module. Once deployed these faultfinding applications direct users through optimized fault finding procedures until fault isolation. ICAT uses diagnostic history, cost of replacement of components/parts and user inputs to determine the best test strategies. Assistance can be called up in the form of on-line text and graphics at any time the technician wishes. Once deployed ICAT actually learns from diagnostic experiences and constantly updates its own reliability database to determine future test strategies.

The following is additional information on IVATEC's use of ICAT:

IVATEC have realized timesavings of more than 50% with repair time. One particular card took, on average, 90 minutes to repair. This has been reduced to 30 minutes. They also now repair 18 PC boards per day instead of four previously. They use staff with no previous knowledge of the faulty equipment and with limited qualifications (pre O level). By using ICAT the staff have also learnt how the card actually functions. They have also reduced the number of replacements of components that are not faulty (hit and miss maintenance).

The Braamfontein Repair Center has been equipped with an ICAT Development System, Runtime Systems, video camera, scanner and printers to develop models for all the other repair centers in South Africa. These repair centers will have Runtime Systems only. They also intend to deploy Runtime Systems on notebook PCs for field applications. They currently have two technicians dedicated to the development of ICAT models.