Report Analyzer — user guide
This guide follows the same order you will use the software: get TestStand writing the right report format, import the reports, organize them, analyze them, and export the result.
1. Configure TestStand to write ATML reports
Report Analyzer reads ATML IEEE-1636.1:2011 XML. That is not always what a station is producing — many sequences are set up to write HTML or plain text, which this tool cannot read. Check it before anything else.
In TestStand, open Configure → Result Processing and set the report format to ATML 5.00. From then on, every finished execution writes a file Report Analyzer can import.
The Result Processing entry in TestStand, with the report format set to ATML 5.00 and the output directory where the files will land.
2. First run
The application opens on the Import module with an empty dataset. Nothing is loaded yet — this is where you point it at your report folder.
The starting state. The sidebar on the left will fill with the measurement tree once reports are imported; the tabs across the top are the analysis modules.
3. Import your reports
Browse to the folder your station writes reports into and import in bulk. The parser reads each file, expands multiple-numeric-limit steps into individual measurements, and discards the setup and cleanup SessionActions that would otherwise flood the dataset with noise.
If your sequences always produce the same kind of noise, save the import filter as a filter set and reuse it on every import instead of configuring it each time.
After importing: one row per execution, with date, serial number, product, overall result and duration. This is your dataset — every other module works off it.
4. Group your executions
Analyzing everything at once is rarely what you want. Groups let you split a dataset by whatever dimension matters — shift, lot, fixture, station, before and after a process change — and then run any analysis on one group instead of the whole pile.
Create a group, assign executions to it, and it becomes selectable everywhere in the application.
The Grouping module. Here three groups have been defined — all passed, all failed, and executions longer than 160 seconds — with the executions assigned to the active one listed on the right.
5. Read the statistics
History & Statistics is where most of the work happens. The table gives you, per measurement: how many values, how many valid, how many failed, mean, min, max, the limits, tolerance, nominal, sigma, bias, and the capability indices — Cg, Cgk, Cp, Cpk — plus %EV, %K and %RE.
Select a measurement in the tree on the left and the two panels below update: the history chart plots every value in run order against its limits, and the histogram shows the distribution against the normal curve.
Cells outside the acceptance limits of the active standard are shaded, so a table of 283 measurements can be scanned in seconds instead of read row by row.
The history chart can be drawn as lines, points, bars, spline or steps, with markers, limits and fill area toggled independently — useful when several measurements are overlaid and the plot gets busy.
6. Analyze the failures
Error Distribution answers a different question: not “is this measurement capable” but “what is costing us yield”. It gives the overall pass rate, the status breakdown per group, and the ranking of the measurements that fail most often.
Pass rate and failure counts at the top, status by group in the middle, and the frequency table at the bottom — the shortlist of what to fix first.
7. Export a report
The Report Wizard walks through what goes into the document. Step one is the measurement selection: include everything, or narrow it down to the ones the report is about.
Step one: pick the measurements. The following steps cover the groups to include, the output format, and the cover information — company, author, product, variant and analysis type — which is printed on the first page along with your logo.
Failure summaries have their own export, separate from the wizard:
Exporting the failure and error summary, with the same cover fields.
8. What the exported reports look like
The MSA Type 1 report opens with a cover carrying your logo and the metadata you filled in, followed by a summary table of every measurement with its n, mean, limits, Cp, Cpk and verdict.
Page one: cover metadata and the index of every measurement with its verdict.
Then one page per measurement — statistics and capability side by side, the histogram, and the run history against the limits.
A measurement that fails its capability requirement, with the distribution that explains why.
The same layout for a measurement with a conditional verdict.
The failure summary report is shorter: cover, totals, and the frequency of each failure.
The exported failure summary, ready to attach to a corrective action.
The Excel version carries the same analysis, plus the raw values — so whoever receives it can verify every number instead of taking the PDF on faith. That is usually what a customer quality engineer asks for.
The Excel export: a summary sheet with the verdict per measurement, and one sheet per measurement with its raw data.
9. Settings reference
General
Significant digits used throughout the application, default histogram bin count, and whether long group names are simplified for display.
Analysis — the MSA standard
This is the setting that changes your numbers. Four standards ship with the application — AIAG MSA 4 (2010), AIAG MSA 3 (2002), Ford Global and VDA 5 / Q-DAS — and each uses different factors and a different Cg acceptance limit, so the same data can pass under one and fail under another. Pick the one your customer requires, and the preview shows the formula that will be applied.
If a customer imposes factors that are not among the four, define a custom standard with its own numerator factors, sigma denominators and acceptance limit.
View
How many groups are shown at once, the default history chart mode, and the series style.
Export
Default output folders for PDF and Excel, and the corporate logo printed on every report cover. Set the logo once and every report you generate carries it.
Licensing and activation
The download includes a 6-day trial with the full feature set. To license the installation permanently, copy the Device ID from the activation screen, purchase a license providing that ID, and paste the key we send you back into the same screen. One license activates one computer, forever.
If you replace the computer, contact us with the new Device ID and we reissue the key at no cost.